The Sikh population in Pakistan was reduced to a microscopic minorityВ ? that too only in the tribal area of Swat. Lakhs of Hindus and Sikhs migrated from Pakistan to India, and Muslims from India to Pakistan. In the wake of the Partition of the country, Punjab was divided into two parts: East Punjab came to India and West Punjab went to the newly created Pakistan. Others have emigrated to India and abroad. Due to Pakistan's porous borders with Afghanistan, large numbers of Afghanistan's minority communities, based mainly around the cities of Kabul, Kandahar, and Jalalabad have fled, and some Sikhs have joined their kinsmen in Peshawar and Lahore.

There has been a massive exodus of refugees from Afghanistan into Pakistan during the past 30 years of turmoil up to the reign of the Taliban and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Afghanistan, like Pakistan, has had a very small Sikh and Hindu population. There has been a minor influx in the population of Sikhs in Pakistan due to the turbulent civil war and conflicts that have ravaged neighboring Afghanistan.

Today, very large segments of the populations of East Punjab and Haryana states and Delhi in India can trace their ancestry back to towns and villages now in Pakistan, including current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The (West) Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan were mostly emptied of their Sikh and Hindu population in the communal massacres of partition, with nearly all fleeing for India. There are also pockets of Sikhs in Lahore, Nankana Sahib, and Hasan Abdal in Punjab, and Gwadar, Kalat, and Quetta districts of Baluchistan. Sikhs are also found in sizable communities in Waziristan and Swat of the Northwest Frontier Province. The largest Sikh population in Pakistan is found in Peshawar, in the Northwest Frontier Province, which was spared the scale of violence during partition that raged in Punjab. Estimates vary wildly, from 200,000 nationwide to around 2000 families, with little methodology or scientific technique cited by sources. Nationwide, there are no reliable numerical figures for Sikhs in the country. The town remains an important site of pilgrimage for Sikhs worldwide. Each of Nankana Sahib's gurdwaras are associated with different events in Guru Nanak Dev's life. The nearby town of Nankana Sahib has nine gurdwaras, and is the birthplace of Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev. Lahore, the capital of (now Pakistani) Punjab was then and still is today the location of many important religious and historical sites for Sikhs, including the Samadhi_of_Ranjit_Singh.

Prior to the Partition of India in 1947, which divided British India into its successor states of Pakistan and India, Sikhs were spread all across the region of Punjab and played an important role in its economy as businessmen and traders.

8 North West Frontier Province Sikh CommunityД«efore the Partition of India and Pakistan.

6 Guru Nanak Model School, Nankana Sahib.

5.1 The emergence of the Sikh community within Pakistan.

5 The Sikh community in Pakistan in modern times.

4 Caretakers of Nankana Sahib Gurdwaras.

1 Before the Partition of India and Pakistan.

Sikh population in world country wise