Ex-Afghan President’s relatives dead bodies found in mass grave

KABUL—Afghan authorities announced Sunday they had found mass graves containing the remains of nine relatives of ex-president Mohammad Daud Khan, shot dead in a Soviet-backed coup three decades ago.
The body of Khan, also killed in the 1978 military coup, is thought to be among those recovered from the two graves on the outskirts of the capital that were found to contain 29 bodies, deputy public health minister Faizullah Kakar told reporters. “We have identified nine members of Mr. Daud Khan’s family but not that of himself,” said Kakar, head of a commission appointed by President Hamid Karzai in April to locate the body of Khan, Afghanistan’s first president. Work to identify Khan’s body was underway, he said. The nine included Khan’s wife, a son, two daughters, his sister and an 18-month-old grandchild as well as other relatives, Kakar said. They were identified through their clothing, teeth, height and other characteristics, he added. “We’re 100 percent sure about our findings,” he said.
Some of the other 29 bodies in the graves, where they were neatly placed side by side, were in military uniform, he said. Khan and 18 members of his family were shot dead on the night of April 27-28, 1978 when Soviet-backed communists stormed into the presidential palace in the centre of Kabul.
Their bodies were secretly buried and the graves were found after tip-offs from former soldiers. The following year the Soviet Union invaded, occupying Afghanistan for a decade before they were defeated by an Afghan uprising. Khan, who died when he was 68, had himself gained power in a coup, toppling King Zahir Shah, his cousin, in 1973 to end the monarchy and establish a republic. Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, died last year in Kabul Scores of police manned checkpoints around Afghanistan’s capital Sunday after authorities ordered more than 7,000 officers to secure Kabul ahead of the country’s Independence Day, an indication of how militants pose a growing threat to the capital.
The rest of the country saw a surge in violence. Officials said several clashes in Afghanistan’s south and east killed 73 Taliban fighters and five private security guards, while a roadside blast killed 10 policemen. The Interior Ministry said the beefed-up police force in the capital would search buildings as well as cars to “create an environment of trust and prevent any disruptive actions by the enemy.”
The security increase comes a day before the country celebrates the 89th anniversary of its independence from Britain. Any breach of security during the celebration would be an embarrassment for President Hamid Karzai’s government. In April, gunmen fired on Karzai at a military parade in Kabul, killing three people, including a lawmaker. Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said more than 5,000 extra police had been drafted for what he described as the biggest operation of its kind in Kabul since 2001, when U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban government.
Teams of police stopped vehicles at checkpoints around the city. Kabul so far has been spared the drumbeat of violence that has afflicted other parts of the country, though it suffered spectacular bomb attacks this year against an international hotel and the Indian Embassy. Bashary declined to discuss whether officials are worried that militants are now at the city’s gates. However, a string of recent high-profile attacks indicate how the resurgent Taliban and other militant groups have gained a foothold in neighboring provinces.
In an ambush last week, insurgents wielding assault riffles gunned down three female aid workers about an hour’s drive south of Kabul. To the west, insurgents have been regularly attacking U.S.-led coalition and NATO supply convoys, burning fuel trucks and killing NATO and coalition soldiers. To the east, the Tag Ab valley of Kapisa province has become the scene of near-daily clashes and airstrikes by the U.S.-led military coalition. Afghan and NATO officials insist that the nearly seven-year effort to bring stability to Afghanistan is progressing. However, the security operation in Kabul is the second time this year that authorities have taken extraordinary measures to reassure Afghans that the Taliban are not able to assail a major city.

—Agencies