Mengal (Balochi: مینگل) are a Brahui speaking clan in Balochistan, Pakistan.[1] Mengal was originally one of the four Jat (Jadgal) tribes inhabiting Balochistan; the other three being Zehri, Bizenjo and Sajdi.[2][3]
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) tribe and the suffix "gal" means (Speech and group). The well-known ancient city of Minnagara in Sindh (town of the Mins) have been also named from this tribe.[4]
The Mengal tribe is one of the largest Brahui Speaking Baloch tribe. The tribe can be divided in two major branches: Zagar Mengal and Shahizai Mengal.[citation needed]
Notable clans of Mengal tribe are Shahizai, Lehri, Baranzai, Mahmudzai etc.[1]
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.[5]
For many years the Mengal tribe has been seeking greater autonomy from the Pakistan government.[6][7][8] The Pakistani government and the Mengals have been clashing for the past four decades, for various reasons.[9][10] 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.