Mohammad Daoud Khan

Mohammed Daoud Khan
File:Mohammed Daoud Khan 1.jpg
1st President of Afghanistan
In office July 17, 1973 – April 27, 1978
Preceded by	Republic created (Mohammed Zahir Shah as King of Afghanistan)
Succeeded by	Nur Muhammad Taraki
Personal details
Born	(1909-07-18)July 18, 1909 Kabul, Afghanistan
Died	April 28, 1978(1978-04-28) (aged 68) Kabul, Afghanistan
Political party	National Revolutionary Party

Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan[1] (July 18, 1909 – April 28, 1978), son of Sardar Mohammed Aziz Khan and grandson of Sadar Mohammed Yusuf Khan was a Pashtun statesman and President of Afghanistan from 1973 until his assassination in 1978 as a result of a revolution led by the Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Khan was known for his progressive policies, especially in relation to the rights of women, and for initiating two five-year modernization plans.

Royal Prime Minister

He was appointed Prime Minister on September, 1953 in an intra-family transfer of power that involved no violence. His ten-year tenure was noted for the foreign policy turn to the Soviet Union, the completion of the Helmand Valley project, which radically improved living conditions in southwestern Afghanistan, and tentative steps towards the emancipation of women.

By 1956, having been rebuffed by the US for both sales of arms and loans, and with the independence of the former parts of the British Empire in Southeast Asia, his government turned Afghanistan toward the Soviet Union. His main reason was to train both the Afghan Army and Afghan Air Force as a defense against provocations by the Pakistanis.

His obsession with Pashtunistan and his hostility to Pakistan proved disastrous for the economy. Daoud supported the reunification of the Pashtun people under Afghanistan, but this would involve taking a considerable amount of territory from the new nation of Pakistan.

With the creation of an independent Pakistan the Durand line had become an international border dividing the Pashtun people.

In 1961, to discourage Pashtun reunification efforts Pakistan closed its borders with Afghanistan causing a crisis and greater dependence on the USSR and the USSR became Afghanistan's principal trading partner. Within a few months, the USSR had sent jet airplanes, tanks, heavy and light artillery for a heavily discounted price tag of $25 million.

In 1963 Prime minister Daoud ordered the invasion of north Pakistan (Waziristan, Balochistan, and Peshawar). This however proved to be an embrassment for Daud as the Afghan forces were swiftly routed by the Pakistan military, and local militants supported by Afghanistan failed to garner support and were defeated by Pakistani security forces.[2]

The crisis was finally resolved with the forced resignation of Daoud in March 1963 and the opening of the border in May.

In 1963 Zahir introduced a new constitution, for the first time excluding all members of the royal family from the council of ministers. He quietly stepped down.

President of the Republic

On July 17, 1973, Khan seized power from his cousin (and brother-in-law) King Zahir. Departing from tradition, and for the first time in Afghan history, Daoud did not proclaim himself Shah, establishing instead a Republic with himself as President.

In 1974 Daoud signed one of two economic packages that would enable Afghanistan to have a far more capable military because of increasing fears of lacking an up to date modern army when compared to the militaries of Iran and Pakistan. For every night for two years Kabul International and Baghram Air Base received a great flow of Soviet advanced weapons to rapidly increase modernization of a Soviet-trained military.

Democracy was curtailed and there was little public representation except through the now largely nominated Loya Jirga. A new constitution backed by a Loya Jirgah was promulgated in February 1977 but failed to satisfy all the factions.

In 1976 Daoud sought to increase relationships and trade with other Muslim countries and made a tentative agreement with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on a solution to the Pashtunistan problem. This was highly criticized by Moscow, which feared that Afghanistan would soon be closer to the West, especially the United States; the Soviets had always feared that the United States could find a way to influence the government in Kabul.

Daoud's administration and the army squelched a growing Islamic fundamentalist movement whose leaders fled to Pakistan. There they were supported by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and encouraged to continue the fight against Daoud.

Any resistance to the new regime was suppressed. A coup against Daoud, which may have been planned before he took power, was subdued shortly after his seizure of power. In October 1973, Maiwandwal, a former prime minister and a highly respected former diplomat, died in prison at a time when Parchamis controlled the Ministry of Interior under circumstances corroborating the widespread belief that he had been tortured to death.

Reneging on his promise to make progressive reforms, he ran a repressive regime with hundreds of arrests and political executions of leftists (including members of the Parcham who had helped him gain power) and Islamists (religious extremists).

He lessened the country's dependence on the Soviet Union and went to Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia and newly-oil-rich Iran for aid. Surprisingly, he did not renew the Pashtunistan issue; relations with Pakistan improved thanks to interventions from the US and Iran.

The next year, he established his own political party, the National Revolutionary Party, which became the focus of all political activity. In January 1977, a loyal jirgah approved the constitution establishing a presidential, one party system of government.

Diplomatic Relations with the USSR

President Daoud met Leonid Brezhnev on a state visit to Moscow from April 12 to 15, 1977. He had asked for a private meeting with the Soviet Premier, to discuss with him the increased pattern of Soviet actions in Afghanistan. In particular the intensified Soviet attempt to unite the two factions of the Afghan communist parties, Parcham and Khalq.

Brezhnev described Afghanistan's non-alignment as important to the USSR and essential to the promotion of peace in Asia, but warned him about the presence of experts from NATO countries stationed in the northern parts of Afghanistan.

In 1977 President Daoud made plans that the Government in Kabul would no longer have any personal relationships with the Soviet Union and try to make Afghanistan closer to the West, especially with other oil rich Middle-East nations. Afghanistan signed a co-operative military treaty with Egypt and by 1977 the Afghan military and police force were being trained by Egyptian Armed forces. This angered the Soviet Union because Egypt took the same route in 1974 and distanced itself from the Soviets. Fearing Afghanistan would do the same, the KGB was ready to get rid of Daoud and set up a puppet government far more friendly to the Soviets.

KGB orchestrating a coup

In September of 1977 the first wave of riots broke out in Kabul by Communist students and government workers who were loyal to the Soviets. The police quickly controlled the riots and Daoud had arrested several key members of the Communist party of the khalq and Parcham factions.

January of 1978 another riot broke out in Kabul where loyal communist were demanding the release of Nur Muhammad Taraki, Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal. This resulted in a bloody massacre when the riots got out of hand, police lost control and the army was called in to control the streets, but it did so by using aggressive force on demonstrators. Daoud much like the Shah of Iran was highly criticized by the public and the Communists inside Afghanistan. The KGB were using propaganda to turn public support against Daoud and his administration.

In March 1978 the head of the Parcham faction, Mir Akhbar Khyber, was arrested by order of President Daoud on charges of being a KGB spy and orchestrating violent riots for KGB and Kremlin. Khyber was awaiting sentencing in prison when he was killed by KGB officers. Daoud was blamed that he had ordered an execution without a fair trial. This resulted in the KGB putting together the communist faction in Afghanistan, using propaganda, swaying public opinion (mostly young students and military officers), and trying to buy or getting rid of opposition to a possible coup against Daoud and his government.

Communist Coup and Assassination

The April 19, 1978, the funeral for Mir Akbar Khyber, the prominent Parchami ideologue who had been murdered, served as a rallying point for the Afghan communists. An estimated 10,000 to 30,000 persons gathered to hear stirring speeches by PDPA leaders such as Nur Muhammad Taraki, Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal.

Shock by this demonstration of communist unity, Daud ordered the arrest of the PDPA leaders, but he reacted too slowly. It took him a week to arrest Taraki, Karmal managed to escape to the USSR and Amin was merely placed under house arrest. According to later PDPA writings, Amin sent complete orders for the coup from his home while it was under armed guard using his family as messengers.

The army had been put on alert on April 26 because of a presumed "anti-Islamic" coup. On April 27, 1978, a coup d'état beginning with troop movements at the military base at Kabul International Airport, gained ground slowly over the next twenty-four hours as rebels battled units loyal to Daoud Khan in and around the capital.

Daoud Khan and most of his family were shot in the presidential palace the following day. His death was not publicly announced after the coup. Instead, the new government declared that President Khan had "resigned for health reasons."