A Threat to the Khyber Pass: An Extended Portrait of Mangal Bagh Afridi

Mangal Bagh

Coming from obscurity, Mangal Bagh Afridi rose to power and notoriety by controlling Lashkar-e-Islam  (LI- the Army of Islam), the biggest and most influential militant group in Pakistan’s Khyber Agency. Khyber Agency is the most strategically important of the seven Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in northwestern Pakistan. The area is known as the gateway to South Asia due to the historic Khyber Pass, which traverses through the Agency and connects Kabul with Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province (KP-formerly North West Frontier Province or NWFP). The Khyber Pass took on an important new role over the last decade as a conduit for logistical supplies to NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan as well as a major trade link between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Agency shares a border in the north, west and south with Peshawar, which is the biggest urban center of the Pakistani Pashtuns. Stability in Peshawar is closely tied to peace in Khyber Agency.