SUMMARY

The Mangals are a Pashtun tribe mainly inhabiting the Paktia and Khost provinces of Afghanistan and the Kurram Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. One of the larger Pashtun tribes, the Mangals are followers of Sunni Islam as well as the traditional, highly conservative Pakhtunwali honor code.

The leadership of the Mangals is exerted via traditional mechanisms. Power is mainly vested in local elders, religious authorities and land-owners (maliks). Further, the decision-making process within the Mangal tribe typically takes the form of various traditional assemblies of such notables (or jergas), convened from clan- and village- level to tribe-level. Moreover, tribal armies, so called lashkars, are convened upon need, in order to defend the tribe or in order to engage various rivals.

The Mangals of Pakistan have faced significant challenges in the 1990s and 2000s as they live on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, in an area where the government exerts little authority and at an important crossing point for Taleban militants. As such, some members of the tribe became sympathetic to the Taleban cause and joined either TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan: Taleban Movement of Pakistan) or the Afghan Taleban ranks while others chose to support the Government of Pakistan attracting the ire of the Taleban insurgents. Further, as the regional situation, and the social conditions in the area deteriorated, the Mangals engaged in conflict with various other tribes, such as the mainly Shia Turi or the Zadran, either on sectarian grounds or in order to gain access to strategic points, such as roads.

The Mangal tribe has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.