KABUL, Jan 12: Afghan officials confirmed on Monday that remains found last year were those of former president Mohammad Daud Khan, killed with many of his relatives in a Soviet-backed coup three decades ago.

Daud Khan’s remains were with those of 16 relatives found in two mass graves on the outskirts of Kabul in a military training ground, deputy public health minister Faizullah Kakar told reporters.

The president and 18 members of his family, including his wife, several children and siblings, were killed on the night of April 27-28, 1978, when pro-Soviet Afghan communists stormed the presidential palace in a bloody coup.

In August, officials had said that the graves contained at least nine of

Daud Khan’s relatives, but they were still trying to confirm if the ex-president and other members of his family were among them.

Artificial teeth found in the grave had since been found to match an original cast made for the former president by a German dentist in 1970s, Kakar said.

An examination of a skull and parts of a skeleton also had characteristics that matched Daud Khan’s physique, he said, citing other post-mortem tests and witness testimony.

Further proof was the discovery in a grave of a golden amulet containing a small copy of the holy Quran, a present from the Saudi king to Daud, the deputy minister said.

“This evidence leads us to conclude that the remains we have found are those of martyred president Daud Khan. We are 100 per cent sure about it,” said Kakar, who led a government investigation to identify the bodies.

While the remains of Khan and his 16 relatives had been confirmed, those of two female relatives had still to be identified, he said.

Authorities had opened 93 graves in a separate cemetery, based on public tip-offs and claims, in their search for the former president, Kakar said.

They were led to the mass graves at the military training ground on information from former soldiers.

The year after Daud Khan was killed, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, occupying the country for a decade before they were defeated in an 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 the nation’s first republic.

Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, died in 2007 after returning to Kabul in 2002 from 29 years’ exile in Italy.

A “glorious ceremony” was planned in the coming weeks to re-bury Daud and his relatives in proper fashion, Kakar said.

—AFP