Daoud Khan

Amu: Monday, April 27, marks the 48th anniversary of the Saur coup, the 1978 military takeover that overthrew President Mohammad Daoud Khan and helped set the country on a path of prolonged conflict and instability. The uprising, carried out on April 27 and 28, 1978 — known as 7 and 8 Saur in the solar calendar — was led by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, or PDPA, with support from factions within the military and close alignment with the Soviet Union. The event is widely known as the Saur Revolution. Fighting quickly engulfed Kabul as military units aligned with the PDPA used tanks and aircraft to strike the presidential palace and other centers of power. Daoud Khan, who had seized power in a 1973 coup and established a one-party system, was killed along with most of his family inside the Arg palace. The coup marked a decisive break in Afghanistan’s political order. Click here to read more (external link).