KABUL, July 23: Afghanistan’s last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, died in Kabul on Monday aged 92, mourned by the war-torn country where he spent his final years after returning from three decades of exile.

President Hamid Karzai declared three days of mourning for the “Father of the Nation,” whose 40-year rule until 1973 is remembered as a time of peace and stability.

Afghan flags flew at half mast and state-run and private television channels alike replaced scheduled programmes with recitations of the Holy Quran.

Zahir Shah ended Afghanistan’s centuries-old monarchy when he abdicated while on holiday in Italy in 1973, after hearing his former premier Mohammad Daud, who was also his cousin, had staged a coup.

He stayed in exile during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation and ensuing civil war but returned home months after the 2001 collapse of the Taliban.

Mr Karzai had announced the king’s death at the presidential palace.

The funeral and burial for the late king will be held on Tuesday in Kabul.

Zahir Shah was awarded the title “Father of the Nation” at a constitutional assembly after his return from exile. Despite pressure from tribal leaders and fellow Pashtuns, Mr Shah repeatedly said he had no desire to again lead his country.

He was in poor health for the last years of his life. His wife Homaira, whom he married in 1931, died as preparations were under way for her to return to Afghanistan to join her husband in 2002. The couple had five sons and two daughters.

Born on October 15, 1914, Zahir Shah took the throne at age 19 after being at the side of his father, king Nadir Shah, when he was shot dead in 1933 on the lawns of a Kabul palace. Under his reign, a 1964 constitution turned Afghanistan into a modern democracy with free elections and a parliament.—AFP