Halt to army pullout from CHT sought

Supplementary prayer filed with HC over earlier writ petition
A supplementary petition was filed yesterday with the High Court (HC) seeking injunction order upon the government to refrain it from withdrawing the army and their camps from Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) as per the 1997 peace accord.
Advocate Tajul Islam, Supreme Court lawyer, filed the supplementary petition with a pending writ petition he had filed back in 2007 challenging the signing of the peace accord.
The HC bench comprising Justice Syed Refat Ahmed and Justice Moyeenul Hossain Chowdhury fixed the date of hearing on the petition on  August 16.
On August 27 in 2007, upon a public interest litigation writ petition filed by advocate Tajul Islam, the HC issued a rule upon the government to explain within eight weeks as to why the CHT peace treaty signed with the erstwhile Shanti Bahini in 1997 should not be declared without lawful authority.
The court also asked the authorities concerned not to debar any non-tribal Bangladeshis living in the hill tracts from registering in the voter list until the rule is resolved.
After filing the supplementary petition, advocate Tajul Islam told reporters that the main writ petition had been pending with the HC regarding the matter. If the army camps are withdrawn from the CHT, the main writ petition would become ineffectual, he added.
It was also mentioned in the supplementary petition that a total of 175-kilometre border areas would be insecure due to the withdrawal of the army camps, for which, “the Indian army and criminal groups of Myanmar will get free access to enter the country”.
If the army troops are withdrawn from the CHT, life and properties of Bangladesh nationals living in the area will be at risk, the petition said.
Advocate Tajul Islam filed the writ petition with the HC, challenging the 1997 treaty that had led to the disbanding of Shanti Bahini thus ending its protracted bush war for self-rule.
On December 2, 1997, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signed the peace accord with PCJSS leader Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma alias Shantu Larma, putting an end to over a two-decade-old war. The accord also brought back refugees from camps across the border.
bdnews24.com adds: A Jamaat-e-Islami man and a lawyer yesterday filed two writ petitions seeking a High Court ban on the ongoing largest single pullout of army from the Chittagong Hill Tracts since a peace accord was signed in 1997.
The petitions argued that the troops withdrawal will put under threat the lives of Bengalees living in the hills region dominated by the indigenous people.
Jamaat leader Barrister Abdur Razzak moved the petitions for advocate Tajul Islam and Jamaat supporter Badiuzzaman with the bench of justices Syed Refaat Ahmed and Moinul Islam.
Petitioner Islam told bdnews24.com, “Army withdrawal will encourage Chakma dominance over the region. It will make our (previous) writ petitions ineffective. So I filed this writ petition against the army withdrawal.”
The court is set to hear the appeals on Aug 16.
The writ appeals also stated that advocate Islam had filed another writ petition in 2007 challenging the legitimacy of CHT peace accord and its implementation. The court had issued a rule on that on Aug 27.
The writ is now in the court’s business agenda, but the withdrawal from the CHT will make that petition ineffective.
The court was also told that it had issued a rule, following another petition filed by Bodiuzzaman in 2000, asking the government why the acts of CHT peace accord were not illegal.
The army withdrawal will also make the writ petition also ineffective.
The government on Friday started what it says “the biggest withdrawal” of army from CHT in line with an announcement on July 29 of withdrawal of one complete brigade, from the total five brigades deployed in the hill districts.
The withdrawal, part of the process to resume implementation of the peace accord, would be complete by the end of the next month.
Jamaat’s key ally BNP has claimed that the withdrawal of army camps will destabilise the hills region.
Former BNP Law Minister Barrister Moudud Ahmed said last week that the partial army withdrawal was designed to clear “non-indigenous residents” from the area. 
 
Courtesy of The Independent