Photos of the People of Pakistan

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The People of Pakistan

Pakistan is a multi-ethnic and multilingual state with a diverse population of over 212 million. Most of its people speak languages of the Indo-Aryan and Iranian language groups. The largest ethnic group are the Punjabis, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group, comprising about 45% of the total population. They live mainly in the Province of Punjab.

Boy with crab
 
Boys of Peshawar
 
Pashtun men, Landi Kotal
 
Pashtun boy, Landi Kotal
 
Passengers, Torkham
 
Painting a rifle butt
 
Children in Dir
 
Boy wearing school cap
 
Boy of Chitral
 
Boy with slingshot
 
Three boys smoking
 
Boy reading in Urdu
 
Girl and two boys
 
Kalash women at “Krakal” funeral ceremony
 
Young Kalash boy
 
Smoking Kalash boy
 
Young Kalash boy, Bumburet
 
Kalash girl with beadwork
 
Passengers in the bus
 
Children carrying rice
 
Pashtun boy, Bahrain
 
Dcorated bus, Mardan
 
Sheep along the road
 
Men along the road
 
Workers from Xinjiang
 
Boys of Gilgit
 
Boy from Hunza
 
Girls from Hunza
 
Boy reading Urdu
 
Boys doing physical exercise
 
Woman with a basket
 
Boys with calculator
 
Young boy
 
Portrait of Joyce
 
Making “Jalebi” sweets
 
Boy in Karachi
 

The Pashtuns (or Pakhtuns, historically also called Pathans), an Iranic ethnolinguistic group, are Pakistan’s second-largest ethnicity, making up over 15%. They live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the north of Balochistan province and also across the border in Afghanistan. There are significant numbers in Lahore and Karachi; Afghan refugees are also mainly Pashtuns.

The Sindhis are Pakistan’s third-largest (about 14%) ethnicity, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group with their own language, and native to Sindh province. There are many other groups, like the Burusho or Hunzakuts of the Hunza Valley who speak Burushaski, a language that doesn’t seem related to any other. Almost all Pakistani are Muslim, with small Hindu and Christian minorities (both around 1.5%). Unique are the Kalasha people, living in three valleys south of Chitral, who have their unique customs and beliefs, thought to be an animist-influenced ancient form of Hinduism.