The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a prominent human rights organisation, has strongly condemned Pakistani authorities for forcibly evicting an estimated 3,000 residents from the Sardasht area of Gwadar district in Balochistan, describing the action as an 'occupation of Baloch land and a state assault on Baloch survival.' The condemnation, issued from Quetta, comes amid growing international scrutiny of conditions in Balochistan, particularly along the Makran coast.

What Is Happening in Sardasht

According to the BYC, the Sardasht area — located near the Shadi Kaur region in Gwadar — is an ancient Baloch settlement that has been continuously inhabited for generations. The locality encompasses Reke Bazaar, Syed Muhammad Bazaar, and Tolgo, which the rights body describes as the social and economic nerve centre of the local community.

Pakistani authorities have reportedly justified the evictions on grounds of a security threat in the area. The BYC has flatly rejected this rationale. 'This justification of security is merely a pretext. The very state constitutionally obligated to protect citizens' lives and property is the one evicting them from their land,' the organisation said in its statement. 'If there is a genuine threat in the area, it is the state's duty to provide protection to the people, not to render them homeless.'

BYC: 'Collective Punishment, Not Security'

The rights body argued that labelling an entire population as a security threat and displacing them constitutes collective punishment — a practice prohibited under international humanitarian law. 'Evicting three thousand people from their homes does not make them safe; rather, it turns them into refugees, unemployed, and displaced within their own homeland,' the BYC stated.

The committee further alleged that the evictions are not an isolated administrative decision but part of a systematic state policy targeting Baloch communities along the Makran coast. 'What is happening in Sardasht is not an isolated incident but a link in the chain of a systematic state policy underway in Balochistan, particularly along the Makran coast,' it said, adding that 'the state's target is not some threat, but Baloch land itself.'

Pattern of Displacement Along Gwadar Coast

The BYC drew attention to a wider pattern of measures it says have progressively curtailed Baloch livelihoods in Gwadar. These include, according to the committee, plans to fence off Gwadar city, proliferating security checkpoints, restrictions on fishermen's access to the sea, curbs on border employment, and now the latest evictions. 'These are all different phases of the same policy,' the BYC noted.

The organisation alleged that Gwadar's land and coastline are being 'sacrificed to so-called development projects and the interests of powerful lobbies,' with the Baloch population 'seen as obstacles and systematically removed.' Gwadar is a key node in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and critics have long raised concerns that large-scale infrastructure development in the region has marginalised local communities.

BYC Demands and Calls to Action

The Baloch Yakjehti Committee has called for an immediate halt to all evictions in Sardasht and the withdrawal of all related orders. It has also demanded that displaced families be permitted to return to their homes with dignity and receive full compensation for losses incurred. The Pakistani government had not issued a public response to the BYC's statement at the time of reporting.

As scrutiny of conditions in Balochistan intensifies — both domestically and internationally — the Sardasht evictions are likely to draw renewed attention to the human cost of security-driven displacement in one of Pakistan's most contested regions.