Munir Mangal

Munir Mohamad Mangal (1950 – 2 May 2020) was an Afghan general whose professional military career spanned more than 40 years. Mangal served in high-level military and government positions, most latterly as the Commander of the Afghan National Police, before his retirement in 2016.

Biography Mangal was born in Samkanay District, Paktia Province, Afghanistan, in 1950.

Most recently, General Mangal was appointed Commander of the Afghan National Police. He was noted for careful planning in order to keep casualties with the National Police as low as possible. In one instance, Mangal and his colleague, General Ghulam Mujtaba Patang, were traveling in helicopter from Kandahar to Kabul over portion of Ghazni province that was controlled by the Taliban, when the aircraft malfunctioned and began to lose stability and altitude. The pilot asked if they should land in a Taliban-controlled area, but Mangal refused and ordered him to continue flying to Kabul, despite the risk of a crash, saying, "It's better to die in a crash than be taken hostage by the Taliban," according to Patang. Mangal retired from the National Police in 2016.

General Munir Mangal died from COVID-19 at his home in Kabul on 2 May 2020, at the age of 70. He is one of the highest-profile victims of the COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan, as well as the second member of his immediate family to die from coronavirus during the pandemic. One of his sons, who was a doctor, also died from the virus. Mangal was survived by his wife, two daughters, four sons, and 13 grandchildren.