By DPA
Kabul : The last king of Afghanistan Mohammad Zahir Shah, 92, died of natural causes here early Monday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told a press conference.
"With great grief I would like to inform my dear compatriots that Mohammad Zahir Shah, father of the nation of Afghanistan, has died at 5.45 a.m.," the president said.
"Zahir Shah, who ruled the country for 40 years, was a friend of the people, fellow worker of his people, and a kind and soft-hearted man," Karzai said with tears in his eyes.
Karzai declared a three-day national mourning period, during which the national flag would fly at half-mast.
Karzai described the former king as a man who believed in the rule of the people, in their freedom and in the rights of humanity.
After the fall of the Taliban regime Shah returned to his homeland in 2002 at the end of 29 years in exile in Italy. He resided at the queen's palace inside Karzai's presidential palace till his last day.
He had been given the title "Father of the Nation" by the Afghan parliament, but had played no political role.
Zahir Shah came to the throne on November 8, 1933 after the assassination of his father, King Nadir Shah.
He lost his throne in 1973 following a coup d'etat while he was travelling abroad. He lived in Rome until his return to Afghanistan in 2002.
When Zahir Shah returned to his homeland shortly after the fall of the Taliban to a US-led coalition, he was greeted by costumed tribesmen dancing in the streets.
But he remained modest about his own aspirations, saying he merely wanted to serve his country in any way available to him in the remaining years of his life.
"I'm a patriot who does his duty. I will carry out any role or mission the people of Afghanistan wish to bestow on me," he was quoted as saying in a recent interview.