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Baloch people

Baloch
بلوچ
Baloch Khans.png
Sardar Ibrahim khan Sanjrani Iranian Baloch Khans in Qajar era, c. 1884
Regions with significant populations
 Pakistan 6,900,000 (2013)
 Iran 2,000,000
 UAE 468,000 (2014)
 Oman 312,000 (1993)
 Turkmenistan 30,000 
 Saudi Arabia 16,000 
Languages
Balochi
Urdu, Pashto (in Afghanistan and Balochistan), Brahui, Arabic.
Religion
Predominantly Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Pashtuns

The Baloch or Baluch (Balochi: بلوچ) are a people who live mainly in the Balochistan region of the southeastern-most edge of the Iranian plateau in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, as well as in the Arabian Peninsula.

They mainly speak the Balochi language, a branch of Northwestern Iranian languages, and are an Iranic people. About 50% of the total Baloch population live in Balochistan, a western province of Pakistan; 40% of Baloch are settled in Sindh; and a significant number of Baloch people in Punjab of Pakistan. They make up nearly 3.6% of the Pakistani population, about 2% of Iran's population (1.5 million) and about 2% of Afghanistan's population.

Baloch people co-inhabit desert and mountainous regions with Pashtuns, Baloch people practice Islam, are predominantly Sunni, and use Urdu as a lingua-franca to communicate with other ethnic groups, such as Pashtuns and Sindhis, similar to the rest of Pakistan.

Prominent Baloch people in Pakistan includes Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and President Asif Ali Zardari who is an ethnic Baloch from Sindh. Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry born in Quetta, is the longest-serving Chief Justice of Pakistan is another prominent Baloch personality.


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