afghanistansecond offer of surrender, he, Na‘im and his few remaining loyalists died
in a hail of bullets and their corpses were later thrown in an unmarked
grave. In 2008 Da’ud’s body, along with the remains of sixteen members
of his family, was located in a mass grave outside the Pul-i Charkhi prison
and given a state funeral.
A few days later the Kabul Times gleefully announced Da’ud’s demise
with the headline, ‘Remnants of Monarchy Wiped’. ‘For the first time
in history,’ the lead article proclaimed, ‘the last remnants of monarchy,
tyranny, despotism and power of the dynasty of the tyrant Nadir Shah has
ended.’ 30 A second leader entitled ‘A Glance at the Historic Crimes of the
Naderi Dynasty in Afghanistan’, excoriated Nadir Shah and the Musahiban
dynasty in general as traitors and described him as ‘the most dedicated
agent of colonialism’, who presided over a ‘despotic and hangman state’. As
for Da’ud, he was damned as a ‘traitor’, ‘executioner’ and a ‘bloodthirsty’
and ‘egotistical’ tyrant.
King Zahir Shah and Sardar Muhammad Da’ud: an appraisalPresident Da’ud’s death marked the end of the Musahiban dynasty
and the Durrani monarchy. His reign as prime minister and president
of Afghanistan epitomized the monarchy’s persistent refusal to relin-
quish its stranglehold on power, its inability to allow ordinary citizens of
Afghanistan more than a token voice in the affairs of state and the denial
of fundamental civil liberties. It is hardly surprising that the younger and
better educated generation were forced to seek alternatives in militant
ideologies, for it seemed that violent revolution, whether Communist or
Islamist in nature, was the only way to establish a more just and equitable
society. Tragically, the governments that succeeded the monarchy only
offered more of the same, albeit dressed in different ideological clothing.
Da’ud’s Republican coup was the death blow to the Durrani monarchy,
for it opened the door for Communist infiltration of the state’s civil service
and the military. Da’ud himself had always been a divisive figure and his
attempt to turn Afghanistan into a One Party State along Ba’athist lines
alienated Muhammadzais, Islamists, the pdpa, democratically minded
intellectuals, and a conservative, deeply religious population that despised
Communism. Da’ud and Na‘im’s handling of the economy and Afghanistan’s
foreign relations was equally inept. Their alliance with the pdpa alienated
the usa, nato, Iran and the Arab world and in the end compromised
the country’s neutrality, while the resurrection of Pushtunistan led to an
economically costly and ultimately pointless confrontation with Pakistan.