Mir Ahmad Shah

Mir Ahmad Shah Rizwani (d. 1978) was an Afghan Islamist intellectual and military general, who led a 1976 coup against the Afghan government, and was later executed after the 1978 communist takeover of the country. Due to his prominence and influence as a scholar, he had been brought into the government fold and given the title of Firqa Meshir, chief of the army. Rizwani was a follower of Islamic scholar Muhammad Atta-ullah Faizani, and headed his own Islamist group, mainly composed of army personnel, called Qiyam-i Islami (Islamic Uprising), which plotted an abortive 1976 coup against the government of President Mohammed Daoud Khan. The coup was preempted; Rizwani and 50 of his associates were arrested on 9 December 1976, and Rizwani executed in 1978 following the communist takeover.