Mengal (Urdu: مینگل) is a Brahui tribe in Balochistan, Pakistan.
The Mengal tribe has over 250,000 people and they speak Brahui, a Dravidian language that has been heavily influenced by other Iranian languages spoken in the area, especially Balochi.[1][2] The Mengal are now closely linked to the Baloch people, with whom they have substantially intermingled and whose cultural traits they have absorbed. The tribe can be divided in two major branches: Zagar Mengal andShahizai Mengal.[edit]Demographics
Tribal area
The Mengal tribal area is around 70,000 square miles, stretching from the Helmand River in the North to Lasbela District in the south, and bordering on the province of Sindh to the east.[3]
Politics
For many years the Mengal tribe has been seeking greater autonomy from the Pakistan government.[4][5][6] The Pakistani government and the Mengals have been clashing for the past four decades, for various reasons.[7][8] Large-scale military operations were carried out in the area ofKhuzdar in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1973, the Pakistani government headed by the former Prime Minister Late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, with support of the Shah of Iran, carried out one of the bloodiest military operations in the history of Balochistan against the Mengal and Marri tribes which lasted for 5 years, during which around 35,000 Baloch fighters and 6000 army soldiers were killed.
Prominent People
- Sardar Ismail Khan Mengal is the head Sardar of the Zagar Mengal tribe.
- Ataullah Mengal is a former Chief Minister of Balochistan.[9]
- Akhtar Mengal is a former Chief Minister of Balochistan.[10]
- Mir Gul Khan Naseer was a renowned poet, historian and politician and the First Education Minister Of Balochistan.[11]
- Amir-ul-Mulk Mengal was Governor and Chief Justice of Balochistan.[12]
- Mir Muhammad Naseer Mengal served as acting chief minister of Balochistan[13] and as Pakistan's Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources.[14]
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