Mir Ahmad Shah (d. 1978) was an Afghan military general and Islamist intellectual who led an attemptedcoup d'etat against the Afghan government in December 1976. and was later executed after the1978 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 ofFirqa Meshir, chief of the army.[1] Rizwani was a follower of Islamic scholarMuhammad Atta-ullah Faizani, and headed his own Islamist group, mainly composed of army personnel, calledQiyam-i Islami (Islamic Uprising), which plotted an abortive coup against the government of PresidentMohammed Daoud Khan.[2] The coup was preempted; Rizwani and 50 of his associates (such as Sayyid Ismail Pasikh and Akhtar Mohammad Sulaimankhel) were arrested on December 9, 1976, and Rizwani executed in 1978 following the communist takeover. His associates who survived fled toPakistan.[3]