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Attempted assassination of Zahir Shah
1991 stabbing in Rome, Italy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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On November 4, 1991, Zahir Shah, the exiled King of Afghanistan, was stabbed and wounded by Paulo Jose de Almeida Santos, a Portuguese convert to Islam posing as a journalist.[1][2][3]
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Background
In 1973, King Zahir Shah was removed from power in a bloodless coup by his cousin and former Prime Minister, Daoud Khan who abolished the monarchy and established a republic with himself as president.[4][5] In April, 1978, Daoud Khan was killed by soldiers loyal to the Khalq faction of the PDPA during the Saur Revolution.[6]
In December, 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan killing General Secretary Hafizullah Amin and replacing him with Babrak Karmal, beginning the Soviet Afghan war. In 1987, Mohammad Najibullah managed to oust Karmal in a power struggle and created a new constitution, restoring the country to its pre-1978 name of "the Republic of Afghanistan" and removing communist ideology as a whole in favour of the free market.[7][8]
Under Najibullah, the former King's citizenship was restored and the Najibullah government and the Soviets attempted to involve the former King in negotiations to end the Afghan Civil War including a possible restoration of the monarchy.[9][10][11] Zahir Shah was considered popular among most Afghans, both rural and urban.[9]
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Attempted assassination
To prevent the former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah from coming back from exile and possibly becoming head of a new government, bin Laden instructed a Portuguese convert to Islam, Paulo Jose de Almeida Santos, to assassinate Zahir Shah. On November 4, 1991, Santos entered the king's villa in Rome posing as a journalist and tried to stab him with a dagger.
A tin of cigarillos in the king's breast pocket deflected the blade and saved Zahir Shah's life, although the king was also stabbed several times in the neck and was taken to hospital, later recovering from the attack.[12] Santos was apprehended by General Abdul Wali, a former commander of the Royal Afghan Army, and jailed for 10 years in Italy.[2][3]
While it was initially suspected that it may have been orchestrated by factions of the mujahideen opposed to the return of Zahir Shah, it was later revealed by Santos in 2002 that he was commissioned by the Arab foreign fighter, Osama Bin Laden who wanted to prolong the civil war in Afghanistan and viewed Zahir Shah as a threat to that goal due to his popularity among the Afghan population.[2][3]
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See also
References
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