Politics, friends and many foes

A prominent face of the nationalist and separatist movement in Pakistan, in 1969, Mengal along with other Baloch friends joined the National Awami Party (NAP) of Khan Wali Khan (son of frontier Gandhi Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan) and developed a close friendship with Wali Khan. The chief of the Mengal tribe became chief minister during Zulfiqar Bhutto’s tenure in 1973 when the NAP-JUI swept the polls.

His tenure came to an end less than a year later, with the Pakistan government using Bugti’s disclosure of a London plan against the country as a pretext. Mengal and his colleagues were arrested along with other NAP colleagues. It was during this time that one of Ataullah Mengal’s sons was killed in Karachi. A tribunal, now held dubious, pronounced Mengal guilty and he was arrested. Mengal was released in 1979 with the ouster of the Bhutto government by Zia-ul Haq but by then, Wali Khan and Mengal had fallen apart.

Mengal allied himself with Khair Buksh Marri and tried to take over the National Democratic Party (a successor to the then banned NAP). He failed and Ataullah Mengal left the party. He subsequently went into exile, where he established contact with the authorities of the erstwhile USSR through the regime in Kabul and received support from Moscow.