Saraiki people

The Saraikis (Saraiki: سرائیکی) are an Indo-Aryan community native to central Pakistan, unified by their use of the Saraiki language and a shared regional identity that transcends tribal and ethnic affiliations.

Mostly inhabiting southern Punjab as well as most parts of Derajat, which is located in the region where southwestern Punjab, southeastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and northeastern Balochistan meet, the Saraiki regional identity arose in the 1960s, separating itself from the broader Punjabi ethnic identity; this was a result of a political movement, arising in 1962, to separate the Derawali, Multani and Riasti dialects from the Punjabi language, and to instead declare them to constitute a separate language for which the term Saraiki was adopted, hitherto only used for a Sindhi dialect spoken in northern Sindh.

The Saraikis follow many religions, though most are predominantly followers of Sunni Islam. A small minority of Saraikis follow Christianity in Pakistan. There used to be a large Hindu and Sikh minority, however majority of them migrated to India after Partition of India in 1947. These Hindus and Sikhs now have assimilated into larger Punjabi-speaking and Hindi-speaking populations.