Sultan Mohammed Khan Mengal

Family

Sultan Mengal was born in November 1918. His father's name was Mir Habib Khan. Habib Khan belonged to the celebrated Paindzai subclan of the Zagr Mengal branch of the Mengal Tribe. Sultan Khan's mother was Bibi Hooran. She was the sister of Mir Raheem Khan, the head of the Rakhshani Badini Tribe. She was a learned woman who knew how to read Persian and also the Quran in Arabic, which was thought of as considerable achievement for a man, more-so a woman. She played an important role in raising her sons. Sultan Muhammad was the Youngest among five brothers. He also had three sisters.

His eldest brother Mir Samand Khan (born c. 1889) had served in the British Army and also as a commander in Khan of Kalat's army. His second brother Mir Lawang Khan (born c. 1901) was a tribal politician and also had the reputation of being a self-taught local doctor. He died on 7 August 1973 while fighting with the Pakistan Army during the 1973 Military Operation carried out in Balochistan by the Federal Government. Mir Lawang Khan is noted for being a martyr of the Baloch people. Sultan Mohammad was arrested the day he returned to Quetta after burying Mir Lawang Khan. Sultan Khan's third brother Mir Lal Bux Mengal (born c.1906) also served for a while in Khan of Kalat's army during which time he held a commanding position in Makran. Sultan Mohammad's Fourth Brother Mir Gul Khan Nasir was a Baloch politician, poet, historian, and journalist from Balochistan. Most of his work is in Balochi language, but he also wrote in English, Urdu, Brahui and Persian.

Commander of the Balochistan Dehi Muhafiz Sultan Mohammad became the first Chief of the Force for the newly established Dehi Muhafiz (Rural Police). The then provincial government of Chief Minister Ataullah Mengal sought to induct more Baloch into the provincial police and civil service. As noted in The Politics of Ethnicity in Pakistan; "he Mengal Ministry dislocated 60 per cent of the non-Baloch officers of the Balochistan Reserve Police and instituted a new police structure" known as Balochistan Dehi Muhafiz (BDM). The Dehi Muhafiz also filled the gap left by the transfer of 2,600 Reserve Police to their home provinces. A white paper of the Federal government stated that 1,100 men had been recruited into the BDM, claiming they were "mostly supporters of the NAP." The formation of the BDM, together with other actions of the Mengal ministry led to a "serious rift between the provincial and federal governments."

A Federal white paper claimed the Balochistan Dehi Muhafiz force was used together with tribal lashkars to attack the Jamotes in Lasbela, then rivals of the provincial government, between December 1972 and February 1973. Around 8,000 Jamotes were "surrounded and besieged", while property losses added up to Rs. 2.6 million, the operation was not under the direct command of Col. Sultan Mohammad Mengal. This provided the Federal government, which had already been disaffected by the transfer of non-Baloch civil servants, a raison d'etre to act against the Mengal Provincial government. which, according to Taj Mohammad Breseeg "paralyzed the province."