Mengal

Ethnic Brahui tribe inhabiting Balochistan, Pakistan

Mengal (Balochi: مینگل) is an ethnic Brahui tribe inhabiting Balochistan, Pakistan.[1]

Origins

According to the official list by Mir Ahmad Yar, the last Khan of Kalat, Mengal was originally one of the Jatt tribes inhabiting Balochistan.[2] In the Balochi language, plurals of substantives and collective nouns are formed, generally, by adding the suffix "gal" to the noun itself, tribes like Jadgal, Kurdgal are formed in this manner, similarly the term Mengal (Meng-gal,) merely denotes the Meng (Ming, or Men, or Min) name of a tribe and the suffix "gal" means (Speech and group), thus meaning (the group of Mins).[3]

Tribal area

The Mengal tribal area is around 70,000 square miles (180,000 km2), stretching from the Helmand River in the North to Lasbela District in the south, and bordering on the province of Sindh to the east.[4]

Politics

For many years the Mengal tribe has been seeking greater autonomy from the Pakistan government.[5][6][7] The Pakistani government and the Mengals have been clashing for the past four decades, for various reasons.[8][9] Large-scale military operations were carried out in the area of Khuzdar 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 8,000 Baloch fighters and 6,000 army soldiers were killed.

Prominent people

References

  1. ^ Table 13 in Elfenbein (1989)
  2. ^ Table 13 in Elfenbein (1989)
  3. ^ Tate, George Passman (1912). Seistan: A Memoir on the History, Topography, Ruins, and People of the Country, in Four Parts. Superintendent government printing. p. 291.
  4. ^ Balochistan Administrative Districts database Planning and Development Department (P&DD) of the Government of Balochistan. Retrieved 25 November 2008
  5. ^ Balochistan tribes threaten Pakistan's gas riches Asia Times, Jul 25, 2002 Retrieved 25 November 2008
  6. ^ Explosive mix in Pakistan's gas province BBC News 4 February 2005. Retrieved 25 November 2008
  7. ^ A quick death The Economist Aug 31st 2006. Retrieved 25 November 2008
  8. ^ A Call to Resistance: The Khan of Kalat Gathers the Tribes Brooklynrail.org Retrieved 25 November 2008
  9. ^ Balochistan Militancy - An Insider's View Rafi Bhatti January 17, 2006. Retrieved 25 November 2008
  10. ^ Nothing but provincial autonomy, The DAWN Group of Newspapers, retrieved 25 March 2009
  11. ^ Taking on the State: Frontline March 09, 2007, Hindunet, retrieved 25 November 2008
  12. ^ Press briefing by the UN offices for Pakistan and Afghanistan, UN News Center, retrieved 25 March 2009
  13. ^ Senators: Mir Muhammad Naseer Mengal, Pakistan Senate, retrieved 26 March 2009
  14. ^ "Daily Times - Latest Pakistan News, World, Business, Sports, Lifestyle".
  15. ^ Sheikh, Irfan (14 October 2010). "Senior Balochistan National Party leader shot dead". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 3 September 2024.

Bibliography

  • Elfenbein, Josef (1989). "Brahui". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume IV/4: Bolbol I–Brick. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 433–443. ISBN 978-0-71009-127-7.
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