Hindko (ہندکو, pronounced [Hindkoŭ]; also spelled as Hindku or Hinko) is a Punjabi variety or group of dialects, spoken by about 5 million people in Pakistan.[2][3][4] Most of them live in Hazara (now a region of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), but there are also speakers in other parts of the province (such as Kohat and Peshawar). There are also speakers in Azad Kashmir and in north-western Punjab. Hindko is classified within Lahnda (Western Punjabi). Hazari is the most spoken dialect of the variety.
There is no proper, formal generic name for these people because they belong to diverse ethnicities and tend to identify themselves by the larger families, castes and tribes. However the people of the largest group in the districts of Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra are sometimes recognised collectively as Hazarawal, named after the Hazara Division that comprises these districts. In Peshawar city they are referred to as "Kharay" meaning City-dwellers or Hindkowans.
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