Abdullah Nangyal

Abdullah Nangyal Bettani is a Pashtun nationalist politician, human right activist and a leader of the National Democratic Movement. He is a founding member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement.

Personal life and education

Nangyal was born in Jandola, Jandola Tehsil and brought up in Tank District subdivision of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Nangyal is known as a prominent human right activist and politician, and through the country, due to which he faced number of terrorism attacks and was arrested several times. He graduated from Gomal University Dera Ismail Khan with Master in Mass communication and journalism.

Political career

In the 2013 general election, Nangyal contested for NA-47 (Tribal Area-XII) Frontier Regions as an independent candidate. He lost to Qaiser Jamal of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
In the 2018 general election, Nangyal contested for NA-51 (Tribal Area-XII) Frontier Regions as an independent candidate. He lost to Mufti Abdul Shakoor of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.

Detentions

In February 2019, Nangyal was arrested by the police outside the National Press Club in Islamabad along with dozens of other PTM activists including Gulalai Ismail during protests against the extrajudicial murder of one of the leaders of PTM, Arman Loni. The arrests received widespread criticism in Pakistan and internationally, including condemnation from the president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, Amnesty International, and the Pakistan Peoples Party.