Hindko (ہندکو, [hindkou̯]), also Hindku, or Hinko, is the sixth main regional language of Pakistan, spoken by the Hindkowan people. It forms a subgroup of Indo-Aryan languages, some Pashtun tribes in Pakistan, as well as by the Hindki people of Afghanistan. The word "Hindko" has also been interpreted to mean the language of India and most probably "Indus" which is the source of etymology for all these words. The term is also found in Greek references to the mountainous region in eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan as Καύκασος Ινδικός (Caucasus Indicus, or Hindu Kush). The language is spoken in the areas of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (including Hazara), Punjab (including Attock), and Pakistan Administered Kashmir.

There is no generic name for these people because they belong to diverse ethnicities and tend to identify themselves by the larger families or castes. However the people of the largest group in the districts of Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan are sometimes recognised collectively as Hazarawal, named after the defunct Hazara Division that comprised these districts. In Peshawar city they are called Peshawari or "Kharay" by Pashtuns meaning City-dwellers.

Hazāra (Persian: هزاره‎) are a Persian-speaking people who mainly live in central Afghanistan and in Pakistan. They are overwhelmingly Shiite Muslims and comprise the third largest ethnic group of Afghanistan, forming about 9% (according to other sources up to 18%) of the total population. Over half a million Hazaras live in neighbouring Pakistan (mostly in Quetta) and a similar number in Iran.

Babur, the founder of the Mughal reign in India, used the name Hazara in his records during the early 16th century for the first time. He, for the most part, referred to the populace of the mountainous region located west of Kabul, as far as Ghor and Ghazni. The word Hazara most likely derives from the Persian word for Thousand (Persian: هزار‎ - hazār). It may be the translation of the Mongol word ming (or minggan), a military unit of 1000 soldiers at the time Gengis Khan. In the passage of time the term Hazar could have substituted the Mongol word and now stands for the group of people.

The origins of the Hazaras have not been fully reconstructed. At least partial Mongol descent is difficult to rule out, because the Hazaras' physical attributes and parts of their culture and language resemble those of Mongolians. Thus, it is widely accepted that Hazaras have Mongolian ancestry, especially after genetic testing showed Hazaras carried the highest frequency of the Y chromosome attributed to Genghis Khan anywhere. Some Hazara tribes are named after famous Mongol generals, for example the Tulai Khan Hazara who are named after Tolui, the youngest son of Genghis Khan. Theories of Mongol or partially Mongol descent are plausible, given that the Il-Khanate Mongol rulers, beginning with Oljeitu, embraced Shia Islam. Today, the majority of the Hazaras adhere to Shi'ism, whereas Afghanistan's other major ethnic groups are mostly Sunni. However, the Sunni and Ismaili Hazara population, while existent, have not been extensively researched by scholars.