Was mainstream Hinduism well-established in the Giglt region amongst the ethnic shins like in Kashmir?

 "The Shīns have the characteristic Hindu aversion to eating the flesh or milk (or even ghī made from the milk) of the cow, and eschew fowls and fish. The former language of the people was Sanskrit, and the dialect now in use is called Shīna. The basic element in the people is thus probably Indo-Aryan, and their festivals preserve many traits of Hindu beliefs."

According to "The making of a frontier : five years' experiences and adventures in Gilgit, Hunza, Nagar, Chitral, and the eastern Hindu-Kush" - Algernon George Arnold Durand:

"That the Shin race was Hindu there can be no reasonable doubt; this is shown by their peculiar regard for the cow, their strict regard for caste, and the absence of the slightest feeling or reverence for the Buddhist remains abounding within their limits"

According to Tribes Of The Hindoo Koosh" - J. Biddulph':

There seem, however, to be good grounds for supposing that the religion of the Shins was of the Brahmanical type. Mention has already been made of the curious fact of the cow being esteemed unclean. Mr. Shaw has shown how the feeling among the Shins of Dah Hanu is one of aversion, and not of reverence, and Mr. Drew remarks that anything more opposed to modern Hinduism cannot be imagined. But the most orthodox Brahmin would consider himself defiled by touching leather, or any part of a dead cow, so that there does not appear to be anything in the present practice directly opposed to modern Hinduism, but rather a perverted feeling that has grown out of it."

"This feeling regarding the cow and domestic fowls is not shared by any other tribe in the Hindu Kush, except by a small one in Chitral, to whom the name of Dangariké (cow-people) is applied by their neighbors, and by the Kalash Kaffirs, who dwell close to them."

"It is also a matter of accepted tradition in Gilgit, Gor, Hunza, and Nager, that Sati was formerly practiced. The dead man, with his finest clothes and his weapons girded on him was placed on the pyre, and as the fire burnt up, the woman, arrayed in her jewellery and her richest clothes, leaped into the flames."

"The burning of the dead ceased to be practiced more than sixty years ago. One or two old men have told me that they could remember hearing it mentioned, as a not uncommon occurrence, in their youth, but none could re-collect having witnessed any actual instance."

"So lately as in 1877, a very old man in Darel scandalised his neighbors by calling his sons to him on his death bed, and after having his arms and valuables brought to him, desiring to be burnt with them when dead. His wish, however, was not carried out. He and a man of Gor, who died twenty years ago, are known to have always refused to be circumsized, or to call themselves Mahommedans (Muslims). They were probably the very last Hindus