Mir Lawang Khan Mengal

Mir Lawang Khan was born in 1901 in Mir Habib Khan's house at Killi Mengal, Noshki. He was the second among five brothers i.e. Mir Samand Khan, Mir Lawang Khan, Mir Lal Bux, Mir Gul Khan Naseer and Col.Sultan Mohammad Khan. His family belonged to the Zagar Mengal sub-tribe of the Mengal tribe.

Education

Mir Lawang Khan was educated in his native town of Noshki. At that time Noshki only had a Primary School so Mir Lawang Khan only studied til 4^th grade (which in a backward area such as Noshki in that time was considered to be quite an achievement). After that he got involved in and played quite an important role in the tribal politics of that region and earned the reputation of being an important figure of the area.

Personal Life

The date or year of Mir Lawang Khan's marriage is unknown. He married three times. From his first wife he had two sons (Akil Khan & Shaista Khan) and one daughter. No child survived from his second marriage. He had two sons (Asghar Khan & Qambar Khan) and three daughters from his third marriage. His eldest son, Mir Akil Khan, grew up to be recognized amongst the top literati of Balochistan. It is said that Mir Lawang Khan liked to hunt a lot in his spare time.

Exile

Mir Lawang Khan and his siblings had ancestral property in Dasht-e-Goran (a small town in District Kalat). After the Independence of Pakistan in 1947 and the Annexation of Balochistan into Pakistan in 1948, Mir Lawang Khan was bothered and harassed a lot in Noshki by the Pakistani Agencies. This forced him to leave his home town and get settled in Dasht-e-Goran.

Death

Mir Lawang Khan's brother, Mir Gul Khan Naseer, was quite a prominent figure in the National Awami Party(NAP) and was the Education Minister of Balochistan during his party's government in 1972. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (the Prime Minister of Pakistan at that time) already had grievances with the NAP Leadership and after Nawab Akbar Bugti "revelaed" in an address at Mochi Gate, Lahore that Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo (Governor of Balochistan at the time) and Sardar Ataullah Mengal (Chief Minister at the time) planned to separate Balochistan from Pakistan, Bhutto got his chance to persecute the leaders and workers of NAP. The NAP Governments in NWFP and Balochistan were toppled, its leadership was thrown in jail and a Military Operation was launched in Balochistan. During this time a mass scale armed resistance movement started against the Pakistan Army in Balochistan.

When the Pakistani Troops entered Dasht-e-Goran to arrest Mir Lawang Khan, he chose to fight them rather than surrender. After that a long battle ensued between the Pakistan Army which was laced with State of The Art Weaponry and a handful of Baloch Locals (who opted to fight alongside Mir Lawang Khan) and were using outdated and obsolete rifles. After almost a whole day of fighting and a loss of 25 soldiers, the Pakistan Army was able to kill the 35 Locals who took a stand against them. Author Selig Harrison in his book "In Afghanistan's Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations" describes the incident as, "72 years old Mir Lawang Khan, elder brother of the Baluch poet and political leader Gul Khan Naseer,hobbed out of his hut on crutches to the centre of the square shouting that he would die before permitting the troops to violate Baluch honour by intruding on the female members of his family,he picked up his out-modeled muzzle loader and started to fire at the soldiers from their fortified huts.

Soon most of the able bodied men in the village had joined him in hand to hand fighting that lasted for four hours. Army soldiers/sources concede that reinforcements had to be called in before the village could be subdued but deny baloch eye witnesses claiming that 25 Pakistani soldiers were killed before Mir Lawang Khan got martyred . Thirty Five villagers were killed by Pakistani MG'S and ARTY fire. Many Baluch compare Mir Lawang Khan to Nauroz Khan, the martyred leader of the 1958 uprising."^[1]. Mir Lawang Khan's younger brother, Sultan Mohammad Khan (a retired colonel in the Pakistan Army) was arrested the day he returned to Quetta after his brother's burial.

Legacy

Mir Lawang Khan has left a legacy that won't be forgotten soon, atleast not by the people of Balochistan. He is compared, far and wide, to Shaheed Nawab Nowroz Khan. The way he laid down his life for his motherland has earned him a lot of admiration and respect. He is mentioned wherever there is talk of Baloch Martyrs. A few lines from a poem in brahui about Mir Lawang Khan.
Taj Khan Mengal