Page "Mohammed Zahir Shah" Paragraph 11

In 1973, while Mohammed Zahir Shah was in Italy undergoing eye surgery as well as therapy for lumbago, his cousin and former Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan staged a coup d ' état and established a republican government.

As a former prime minister, Daoud Khan had been forced to resign by Zahir Shah a decade earlier.

In August 1973, Zahir abdicated rather than risk an all-out civil war.