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 The Afghan National Police (ANP; ps, د افغانستان ملي پولیس; prs, پلیس ملی افغانستان), is the national police force of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, serving as a single law enforcement agency all across ...

, before his retirement in 2016.

Biography

Mangal was born in Samkanay District,

Paktia Province Paktia (Pashto/Dari: – ''Paktyā'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the east of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktia Province is divided into 15 districts and has a population of roughly 6 ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, in 1950. He was sent to

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

, where he attended

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

and

military school A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...

. Mangal then went to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, where he completed a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

military affairs ''The Journal of Military History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the military history of all times and places. It is the official journal of the Society for Military History. The journal was established in 1937 and the ed ...

. In 1972, Mangal began his professional military career as a lieutenant in a Kabul-based

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

division. He rose to serve in both military positions under several Afghan governments over the course of his four decades as an officer in the

Afghan Armed Forces ("The land belongs to Allah, the rule belongs to Allah") , founded = 1997 , current_form = , branches = * Afghan Army * Afghan Air Force , headquarters = Kabul , website = , commander-in-chief ...

, especially during the American-backed governments in the 2000s. Following the 2001

United States invasion of Afghanistan In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operatio ...

and the overthrow of the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

, Mangal helped to form the new

Afghan National Army Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia * Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

and served as a

Corps Commander Corps Commander, or "Corps Commander: Operational Manoeuvre Group" is a set of micro-armour Miniature wargaming rules designed by Bruce Rea Taylor and Andy Ashton and published in the UK by Tabletop games copyrighted by B. A. Rea Taylor, A. Ashton ...

. He also became Deputy Minister of Interior for security. Most recently, General Mangal was appointed Commander of the

. 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 Major General Ghulam Mujtaba Patang (born 1963) is an Afghan Police Officer and the former Interior Minister of Afghanistan.http://www.afghan-bios.info/index.php?option=com_afghanbios&id=1352&task=view&total=7&start=2&Itemid=2 Career Patang ente ...

, were traveling in helicopter from

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...

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 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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 The COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Afghanistan when its index case, in ...

, 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mangal, Munir 1950 births 2020 deaths Afghan military officers Afghan National Police commanders Government ministers of Afghanistan Afghan military personnel People from Kabul People from Paktia Province Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan