Mangal (Pashtun Tribe)

Mangal (Pashtun Tribe)

The Mangal (Pashto: منګل‎) are a Pashtun tribe, residing in Southeastern Paktia and adjacent Khost provinces of Afghanistan. The name Mangal derived the Sanskrit name for the planet Mars. The Mangals descent from Karlanri Pashtun lineage, which is much smaller compared to the two main Pashtun clans: Durrani and Ghilzai.

The Mangal tribal militia was one of the various militias used by Mohammad Nader Khan to topple the Tajik King, Habibullah Kalakani. Consequently Nadir Khan owed much to the tribes of Paktia, these tribal leaders were granted vast war booty and power by the new administration. In fact, the entire greater Loya Paktia region was exempt from mandatory military service, which the rest of the nation (regardless of ethnicity, region, or family) endured.

The Mangal tribal militia was deployed in Northern Afghanistan shortly before Nadir Khan's assassination to oust an Uzbek Muslim resistance fighter, Ibrahimbeg Laqqai, who was using ethnic kin support in Northern Afghanistan against Soviets in his homeland across the Oxus river. Laqqai had been successfully battling Soviet troops, who had taken over his homeland of modern day Uzbekistan, in what is now known as the Basmachi Movement. During Kalakani's short rule as king, Laqqai was given support in the Northern Tajik and Uzbek communities and thus he recruited locals to fight across the river against the Soviets. Mohammad Nader Khan worried by this, summoned the Mangal tribe, amongst others, armed them with Soviet supplied weaponry and motivated them by promises of war booty, to being dispatched to the north. Within a few months, with Soviet support and systematic terror against Tajik and Uzbek locals, the Basmachi Movement were brutally crushed in Afghanistan and eventually in Central Asia and driven him back across the Amu river, where Ibrahimbeg Laqqai was subsequently captured and hanged by the Soviets.

The Mangals also played a notable role in the late 20th century history of Afghanistan. The son and grandson's of the Mangals who toppled Habibullah Kalakani were recruited in the Afghan Army and educated in Soviet Military Academies. Consequently, they came back as idealogical Communists who eventually joined military corp of the KHALQ faction and overthrew the Monarchy

Mangal tribe is also found in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province mainly in area of Thall Vally and also in District Hangu and Orakzai Agency of FATA. A small group of Mangal's are living in the valley of kurram agency's areas such as Teri, Kutri, Gonazana, Gidu, Sarsarang, Piwar tangi and Shalawzan Tangi.