The Mengals aren't the only prominent Baluch clan where brother is pitted against brother.
It is an ethnic hodge-podge of Uzbeks and Tajiks, Aimaq and Hazaras, Turkmen, Mongols and Baluch.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused India and Afghanistan of covertly supporting Baluch separatists, accusations that New Delhi and Kabul have denied.
And the Baluch Liberation Army, a shadowy terrorist group, said by the army to be financed by India, may refuse to negotiate.
In 2008, three teenage Baluch girls were shot and buried alive for refusing to marry the husbands chosen for them by their tribes.
Abdul Khaliq, also known as Abdul Haq Baluch, was shot by unidentified gunmen on 29 September in Khuzdar, in the south-western province of Balochistan.
There are five Baluch nationalist parties with strong support among ethnic Baluch, who make up 51% of the province's 9 million people, according to local government data.
The tribesmen's leader is Nawab Akbar Bugti, a prickly old Baluch nationalist who has been agitating for Baluchi rights in general, and in particular for an increased share of gas revenues, for decades.
Nationalist politician Changez Marri is running for a seat in the federal parliament, while his brother, Harbiyar Marri, leads the Baluch Liberation Army, a powerful armed group with around 3, 000 fighters, according to officials.
The separatist cause is fueled by a sense that natural resources in Baluchistan, Pakistan's poorest province, have long been exploited for the benefit of the rest of the country, without adequate revenue going to the Baluch.
Corruption in the provincial government in which nationalists have no representation after the 2008 boycott has played a role in Baluchistan's troubles, while a military campaign against the separatists has fueled popular support in Baluch-dominated areas of the province for the armed groups and provided them with a flow of young recruits.
At the opposite end of the country, along Iran's border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, the security forces are also being stretched by dozens of bandit groups and particularly by the savagery of Abdolmalek Rigi, a young Baluch who kills in cold blood in the name of his vaunted ideals, Sunni Islam and Baluchi nationalism.
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