Word: zahir
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...soft-spoken novelist and journalist who was once (1952-53) an attaché at the Afghan embassy in Washington. More recently, as leader of the 15,000-member Khalq (Masses) Party, Afghanistan's principal Communist faction, Taraki led a campaign against the domination of the long powerful Mohammed Zahir family, to which both Daoud and the cousin-King he had deposed belonged. Taraki was periodically imprisoned for his activities; indeed, he was in jail when the coup erupted two weeks ago, and one reason that the plotters hit the presidential palace so hard was to free him before Daoud...
That echoed Daoud's own coup in 1973. His target then was his cousin and brother-in-law, King Mohammed Zahir Shah, whom he had once served as prime minister. While the king was abroad for medical treatment, Daoud and a group of military insurgents−including the then and still obscure Col. Kadir−overthrew the Zahir monarchy, which Daoud condemned as corrupt and ineffective. But the Zahir family kept a tight hold on the top jobs and other spoils of power, and this time Col. Kadir vowed to throw them out once...
After 40 years as monarch of Afghanistan, King Mohammed Zahir Shah, 58, presumably thought it safe to take a holiday in Italy to soak up some sun and get treatment for a troublesome eye condition. That, as it turned out last week, was a royal mistake. While the King was bathing his eyes with mud and mineral water at a thermal spa on the isle of Ischia off Naples, his kingdom was peremptorily converted into a republic. Leading the coup was his cousin and brother-in-law, ex-Prime Minister Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan...