Body of former Afghan president found after 30 years

Kabul: The body of ex-President Mohammad Daud Khan who was killed in a communist-backed coup three decades ago has been identified, an official said on Thursday.

A government appointed commission made the discovery after six months of excavation at a military base on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, Ahmad Farid Raaid, of the public health ministry said.

Khan, Afghanistan's first president, was shot dead in the presidential palace in a military coup in April 1978.

He seized power after overthrowing his cousin Zahir Shah in a 1973 coup.

The government and Daud Khan's family members will decide over a place for reburying the former president and those found in the mass two graves, Raaid said.