Quetta, Sep 23 (IANS) : Human rights body Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has strongly condemned an order issued by Pakistani authorities directing residents in Balochistan’s Kalat district to vacate their homes, describing the move as part of an ongoing policy of “state repression, collective punishment, and genocidal policy” against Baloch civilians.
The rights body noted that an order issued by the Assistant Commissioner of Kalat on September 20 directed the local population to vacate the areas of Shor Parod, Khalili, Khalkhti, and Shoki by September 28.
“Forcibly displacing an entire population from their ancestral lands, homes, and livelihoods is not merely an administrative measure but a direct assault on the lives, identity, and presence of the local population on their own territory,” the BYC stated.
The rights body said that the move was not merely a relocation measure but an attempt to impose collective punishment and spread fear among the local population.
“Holding an entire population accountable for the actions of an individual or group constitutes collective punishment, and when this same practice takes the form of continuously displacing a population with a specific national identity, stripping them of their economic resources, and dismantling their social fabric, it becomes linked to the broader process of genocide,” the BYC said.
“Evicting people from the settlements where their homes, lands, livelihoods, and generational lives are tied is not just rendering them homeless but consigning them to a slow death,” it noted.
The BYC said that collective punishment of Baloch people based on their national identity and the displacement of communities through fear, forced migration and deprivation are “unacceptable”.
Citing forced displacements in several other areas of Balochistan, including Shadi Kor and Mastung, it said that such measures form part of a wider pattern of oppression by Pakistani authorities that has deprived ordinary people of their homes, land, livelihoods and normal lives.
“The purpose of collective punishment is not merely to displace people but to instil fear, silence questions, break collective resistance, and enforce submission upon a subjugated population,” the BYC noted.
The rights body unequivocally rejected the order of “forced eviction” and called for its immediate withdrawal. It demanded that the local population be protected and granted the right to live freely, with dignity, and safely in their homes and ancestral areas.
“The people of Balochistan cannot be silenced through collective punishment. A policy of severing a nation from its land, identity, and collective life cannot be normalised,” the BYC stressed.
