Dost Muhammad Khan (colonel)

Dost Muhammad Khan was an Afghan military officer who served as a colonel in the Royal Afghan Army under King Zahir Shah. He was the father of the military commander Ahmad Shah Massoud and grandfather of NRF leader Ahmad Massoud.

Biography

Dost Muhammad Khan was born in in Bazarak, Panjshir Province, Afghanistan, to a Tajik family belonging to the Sarkarda clan. His father Muhammad Yahya Khan was an Afghan military officer who fought under King Amanullah Khan in the Third Anglo-Afghan War against British India. Dost Mohammad Khan's wife Bibi Khurshid has been described as a "modern-minded" woman who taught herself to read and write determined to educate her daughters no less than her sons.
After completing his military education, Dost Muhammad Khan served as colonel under King Zahir Shah. He later moved to Herat where he served as chief of police. Afterward, Khan was dispatched to Kabul and the family moved along with him. Following the Soviet–Afghan War, he migrated to Pakistan and spent around twelve years of his life in Pakistan. Khan died in an accident in 1371 SH in Islamabad at the age of 98. He was buried in Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan.