On 23 October 2016, he was appointed as the senior adviser for the minister of borders, tribal affairs, and provincial governor of Nangarhar province until he resigned in April 2018.

[3] The Washington Post attributes Mangal's popularity in Helmand to his appointing competent district leaders and focusing on delivering basic services to the population, who also regard him as a person willing to stand up against the corrupt government in Kabul.

[4] Further, Mangal, whom The New York Times calls "ardently anti-opium", succeeded in cutting back opium cultivation in Helmand by 33 percent in 2009.

During this assignment he was able to establish coordination between ANSF, and led them to clear many districts and villages from ISIS and Taliban insurgents, increased civil services, and brought many new opportunities to the province.

[1] In October 2006, Mangal's convoy was struck by a bomb attack east of Kabul, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, narrowly missing him, killing one provincial official.

[3] In February 2009, two U.S. soldiers who were part of a convoy of coalition troops accompanying Mangal to a village where he intended to talk to residents about alternatives to opium farming were killed along with three Afghans, including a police official, while trying to disable a roadside bomb.

[1] Afghan authorities claimed the detainees later confessed,[5] but the Taliban denied hiring any foreign aid workers,[6] and they were later released without charges.

According to U.S. cables of January 2009, Mangal accused the British of doing too little to interact with the local community, telling a U.S. team led by Vice-President Joe Biden that he did not “have anything against them (the British) but they must leave their bases and engage with the people.”[8] As reported by The New York Times, the Wikileaks cables confirm that Mangal is considered an effective governor by foreign diplomats, and that he only kept his job as governor in Helmand Province thanks to “a concerted effort by the British, backed up by NATO allies”, when President Hamid Karzai wanted to replace him with a “tribal power broker with unsavory connections”.