Tajiks in Pakistan (Urdu: تاجک‎) have inhabited north western valleys which lay adjacent to Tajikistan since ancient time, though many are not counted as ethnic Tajik's due to census irregularities. Small numbers of Tajiks had travelled to what is now Pakistan as technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and Sufis during the Islamic Sultanates and Mughal Empire and settled permanently. There are many shrines dotted throughout Pakistan in honour of noted Tajik noblemen. Some Pakistanis claim Tajik ancestry. In recent years, many Tajiks from Tajikistan have also settled in Pakistan due to the economic conditions prevalent in their home country, many have settled in the northern city of Ishkuman. In 1979, with the invasion by the Soviet Union o