April 24, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1429

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has appointed a commission to find the bodies of ex-president Mohammad Daud Khan and his relatives killed in a 1978 military coup, the government said ON Wednesday.

Khan, Afghanistan’s respected first president, was shot dead in the presidential palace in a communist, Soviet-backed coup on 27-28 April, 1978, almost exactly 30 years ago.

Several of his relatives were killed, including at least one daughter and several women and children, although the number is not clear. Their remains have never been recovered.

The commission appointed to find them is headed by national intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh and includes representatives of the interior, defence and culture ministries, a statement from Karzai’s office said.

A member of Khan’s family, Nadir Naeemi, is also on the team, it said.

The commission, appointed out of ‘respect for the national figure’, was tasked with searching for the remains of the dead and drawing up a proposal for the construction of a mausoleum for them, it said.

They had a month to report to Karzai.

Khan himself came to power in a coup when he overthrew his cousin Zahir Shah -- the last king of Afghanistan.

A moderate who tried to counter the influence of Islamists, Khan abolished the monarchy and established a republic, introducing reforms and eventually favouring relations with the West over the Soviet Union.

The announcement of the presidential decree ordering the search for his remains comes just days before Afghanistan’s commemorates the 1989 removal of the last Soviet-backed communist regime.—AFP