afghanistanPresident of the Supreme Soviet, paid a state visit to Kabul only for Shafiq
to decline the Soviet offer of joining the Asian Security Network, the ussr’s
equivalent of seato-cento. Shafiq’s failure to toe the Soviet line was duly
noted and Marxist sympathizers were given the nod by Soviet embassy
officials to go ahead with the planned coup.
In June King Zahir Shah made a hastily arranged trip to Italy that was
officially said to be for surgery for an eye injury, which was somewhat
ironic as the government had just expelled some of the world’s leading
eye surgeons. In hindsight, the king’s sudden departure could well have
been a face-saving way of avoiding the inevitable. After an absence of
more than three weeks and with no sign of the king’s imminent return, at
0400 hours on 17 July 1973, Da’ud ordered his followers into action. Army
units led by young Khalqi officers swiftly took control of key ministries
and Radio Kabul. After a brief exchange of small arms fire in the palace,
Queen Homaira, who appears to have had advance warning of the coup,
ordered the royal guard to lay down their arms. Apart from a brief skirmish
around the prison and traffic police headquarters at Deh Mazang, there
was little resistance. Shafiq, Shah Wali Khan, General ‘Abd al-Wali Khan
and other members of the royal family were arrested, along with army
officers, government ministers and political opponents, but no member of
the royal family was injured. In all 45 soldiers and two or three policemen
died in the fighting. 59
The following morning Da’ud announced on Kabul Radio that he had
acted to end the country’s slide into anarchy and economic meltdown, and
made it clear that the king had been deposed and would not be allowed to
return. Da’ud was now President of the People’s Republic of Afghanistan
and the Constitution and Parliament were suspended. A few days later,
following expressions of concern from Western nations that the new
name implied Afghanistan was now a Soviet client state, Da’ud henceforth
referred to the country as the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.