Mir Lawang Khan
| Mir Lawang Khan Shaheed | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 1901 |
| Date of death | 1973 (Age: 72) |
| Place of birth | Killi Mengal, Noshki |
| Place of death |
Dasht-e-Goran, Kalat District |
| Data | |
| Nationality | Pakistan |
| Allegiance | Balochistan |
| Mother tongue | Brahui |
| Tribe | Mengal |
| Sub-tribe | Zagar Mengal |
| Clan | Paindzai |
| Father's name | Mir Habib Khan |
| Siblings |
Mir Samand Khan Mir Lal Bux Mir Gul Khan Naseer Mir Sultan.M.Khan |
| Offsping |
Mir Akil Khan Shaheed Mir Shaista Khan Shaheed Mir Asghar Khan Mir Qambar Khan |
Mir Lawang Khan (Urdu: میر لونگ خان) was the second eldest son of Mir Habib Khan, a member of the hugely famed PAINDZAI (Sardarkhel) Family of the Zagr Mengal Tribe. Born in Killi Mengal Noshki, he was the elder brother of the National Awami Party leader and Balochi National Poet Mir Gul Khan Nasir and the First Commander of the Balochistan Reserve Police (BRP), Col.Sultan Mohammad Khan.
Education
Mir Lawang Khan got his early education in his native town of Noshki. After that he got involved in and played quite an important role in the tribal politics of that region and earned the reputation of being an important figure of the area.
Personal life
The date or year of Mir Lawang Khan's marriage is unknown. He married three times. From his first wife he had two sons (Akil Khan & Shaista Khan) and one daughter. No child survived from his second marriage. He had two sons (Asghar Khan & Qambar Khan) and three daughters from his third marriage. His eldest son, Mir Akil Khan, grew up to be recognized amongst the top literati of Balochistan. It is said that Mir Lawang Khan liked to hunt a lot in his spare time.
Exile
Mir Lawang Khan and his siblings had ancestral property in Dasht-e-Goran (a small town in Kalat District). After the Independence of Pakistan in 1947 and the annexation of Balochistan into Pakistan in 1948, Mir Lawang Khan was bothered and harassed a lot in Noshki by the Pakistani Agencies. This forced him to leave his home town and get settled in Dasht-e-Goran.
Death
Mir Lawang Khan's brother, Mir Gul Khan Naseer, was quite a prominent figure in the National Awami Party (NAP) and was the Education Minister of Balochistan during his party's government in 7th of aug in 1973. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (the Prime Minister of Pakistan at that time) already had grievances with the NAP Leadership and after Nawab Akbar Bugti "revealed" in an address at Mochi Gate, Lahore that Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo (Governor of Balochistan at the time) and Sardar Ataullah Mengal (Chief Minister at the time) planned to separate Balochistan from Pakistan, Bhutto got his chance to persecute the leaders and workers of NAP. The NAP Governments in North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan were toppled, its leadership was thrown in jail and a Military Operation was launched in Balochistan. During this time a mass scale armed resistance movement started against the Pakistan Army in Balochistan.
When the Pakistani Troops entered Dasht-e-Goran to arrest Mir Lawang Khan, he chose to fight them rather than surrender. After that a long battle ensued between the Pakistan Army which was laced with State of The Art Weaponry and a 72-year-old Mir Lawang Khan who was using outdated single bullet rifle. Lawang Khan fired the first shot when dawn had not yet broken and the battle went on for more than four hours when a bullet got stuck in Lawang Khan's Rifle chamber, he tried to remove it with the help of his knife, but couldn't, it was then that he decided to charge towards the troop lines with his pistol in his hand, and he was hit by a machine gun burst and embraced martyrdom. The military had lost 29 soldiers, the Pakistan Army then hoarded the locals into vehicles and put them behind bars. Author Selig Harrison in his book In Afghanistan's Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations describes the incident as, "72 years old Mir Lawang Khan, elder brother of the Baluch poet and political leader Gul Khan Naseer,hobbed out of his hut on crutches to the centre of the square shouting that he would die before permitting the troops to violate Baluch honour by intruding on the female members of his family,he picked up his out-modeled muzzle loader and started to fire at the soldiers from their fortified huts.
However Selig Harrison has erroneously described that, quote "Soon most of the able bodied men in the village had joined him in hand to hand fighting that lasted for four hours." unquote. in fact the locals were not fighters but very poor farmers who could just pray for Lawang Khan rather than fight, and 72-year-old Lawang Khan fought single handedly a whole battalion of the Army for more than four hours with his single bullet rifle (not a muzzle loader as Siegel Harrison had earlier described), and only Mir Lawang Khan was martyred while all the men from the village were then arrested. Selig Harrison further and correctly describes that, soldiers/sources concede that reinforcements had to be called in before the village could be subdued but deny baloch eye witnesses claiming that 28 Pakistani soldiers were killed before Mir Lawang Khan got martyred . Many Baluch compare Mir Lawang Khan to Nauroz Khan, the martyred leader of the 1958 uprising.".[1] Mir Lawang Khan's younger brother, Sultan Mohammad Khan (a retired colonel in the Pakistan Army) was arrested the day he returned to Quetta after his brother's burial.
Legacy
Mir Lawang Khan has left a legacy that won't be forgotten soon, at least not by the people of Balochistan. He is compared, far and wide, to Shaheed Nawab Nowroz Khan. The way he laid down his life for his motherland has earned him a lot of admiration and respect. He is mentioned wherever there is talk of Baloch Martyrs. A few lines from a poem in brahui about Mir Lawang Khan.
SHER ATAULLAH THO NANA LASHKAR
BASH KARE DUSHMAN KE ZIRAB o KHAKHAR
WA SAFAR KHAN O MIR LAWANG KHAN E
SHAHEED KARER PULLAAR O ASAD JAAN E
TRANSLATION:-
We the public, with the Lion Ataullah (Mengal) Raised Hell for the enemy Again Safar Khan & Mir Lawang Khan Are being martyred & Asad is being snatched from us
On the tombstone of Mir Lawang Khan is a poem in Balochi which was written by his brother Mir Gul Khan Naseer in Mach Jail when he heard about Mir Lawang Khan's death. The poem is as follows:
IDAA WAPTHAG HAMAA MARD SARMACHAARAIN
VATHAN DOSTH O HABAR PAAL O MAZAARAIN
LAWANG KHAN NAAM, MENGAL ZAAT PULAIN
HABIB KHAN MEER AE BACH ETH NAAM DAARAIN
AUGUST NONZDA SAD O HAFTHAAD O SEY AE
SABAA AA HAFTHAMEE ROCH AE GHUBARAIN
VATHI NANG O MAYAAR AA PA BALOCHAIN
GO PAKISTAN AE FAUJ AA SAR SAWAARAIN
MIRAAN AA CHO YALAAN QAUM AE SHAHEED BOOTH
JAHEE JANAT BIBAAT DAAIM BAHAARAIN
TRANSLATION:-
Here sleeps the man brave and bold Patriotic, true to his word, the lion His Name is Lawang Khan, Mengal is his tribe The famous son of Mir Habib Khan On August 1973 The seventh day in the morning For his Balochi honour & dignity He fought with the army of Pakistan For the freedom of his nation he became a martyr Making a place for himself in paradise, ever green
See also
References
- ↑ Selig S. Harrison (1 September 1981). "In Afghanistan's Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 2010-12-04.