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Last Afghan King Laid to Rest


Afghanistan's last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, was laid to rest Tuesday on a hilltop overlooking the capital, Kabul.

Security was tight for the funeral, led by President Hamid Karzai and attended by family members and foreign dignitaries, including Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

The body of the former king was placed next to his father and wife after his coffin was taken to a mosque where thousands of people came to pray.

Zahir Shah, who died Monday at the age of 92, was called the "father of the nation," and considered a stabilizing force in Afghanistan which had been plagued by years of civil war. He ruled for 40 years before he was deposed in a coup by his cousin in 1973.

He later abdicated while in Rome, ending Afghanistan's centuries-old monarchy.

He returned to Afghanistan from exile in 2002, after a U.S.-led invasion drove out the extremist Taleban government.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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