Tafsir of Al-Mursalat 77:16

Qirā’āt (Readings): Qatāda read nahliku (with a fatḥa on the nūn), derived from halakahu in the sense of ahlakahu (to cause to perish). Al-Ḥajjāj said: And a desert where he who traverses it perishes.

{Then We will follow them up with the others}

• In the nominative case (rafʿ): As an isti’nāf (a new sentence). This is a threat to the people of Mecca, meaning: "Then We will do to those who come after them the same as We did to the former ones, and We will make them follow their path because they denied just as they denied." This is supported by the reading of Ibn Masʿūd: thumma sanutbiʿuhum (Then We will surely follow them up).
• In the jussive case (jazm): As a conjunction to nuhlik (Did We not destroy... and then follow them up). Its meaning is: He destroyed the former ones—the people of Noah, ʿĀd, and Thamūd—then He followed them up with the later ones—the people of Shuʿayb, Lot, and Moses.

{Thus} Like that heinous act, {do We deal} with every criminal, as a warning and caution against the consequence of crime and its evil effect.