A writ petition has been filed with the High Court for its direction upon the government bodies concerned not to allow Bangladesh Awami League and 10 other political parties to carry out any kind of political activities within the territory of Bangladesh.
The ban on the parties' activities has been sought for indiscriminate killing of citizens by them during the July-August massacre, destroying democratic institutions and unconstitutionally usurping the state power without due legal process.
The other parties are Jatiya Party (Ershad), Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Jatiya Party (Manju), Bangaldesh Tarikat Federation, Ganatantri Dal, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Bikalpa Dhara Bangaladesh, Liberal Democratic Party, Marxist-Leninist (Barua) and Socialist Party of Bangladesh.
Three coordinators of the July-August mass uprising, Md Abul Hasnat, Md Sarjis Alam and Md Hasibul Islam, on October 27 this year filed the writ petition.
The petitioners also prayed to the court to issue a rule upon the government bodies concerned to explain as to why they should not be directed to ban all political activities of Bangladesh Awami League and 10 other political parties for the indiscriminate killing of citizens by them.
In the rule they also wanted to know from the respondents to explain as to why they should not be directed to ban all political activities of Bangladesh Awami League and 10 other political parties including barring them to participate in all future elections.
Law ministry, home Ministry, Bangladesh Election Commission and Inspector General of Police (IGP) have been made respondents to the petition.
In a separate writ petition, the same plaintiffs prayed to the High Court to issue a rule upon the bodies concerned of the government to explain as to why the 10th, 11th and 12th parliamentary elections shall not be declared illegal.
In the rule, they further wanted to know from the respondents as to why they should not be directed to cancel the gazette notifications regarding the 10th, 11th and 12th parliamentary elections.
The petition also wanted to know as to why the charge of sedition shall not be brought against the persons who were elected parliament members with nominations of Bangladesh Awami League and 10 other parties in the 10th, 11th and 12th parliamentary elections.
And as to why a directive shall not be given upon the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to cancel the allotted plots and recover the tax and customs benefits received for importing duty-free vehicles as well as the remuneration and emoluments from the so-called parliament members under the nomination of Bangladesh Awami League and 10 other parties in the elections.
Lawyer Aminul Hoque on behalf of the plaintiffs filed the petitions while lawyer Ahsanul Karim moved those before the court.
The petitions were placed on October 27 before the HC bench of Justice Fahmida Quader and Justice Mubina Asaf. However, the bench dropped the petitions from its cause-list on Monday.
Deputy Attorney General Mahfuz Bin Yousuf who is attached to the HC bench headed by Justice Fahmida Quader told the FE that the court suggested that the lawyers of the petitioners should place the petitions to another High Court bench as serious constitutional issues are involved here.
Later those were placed before the HC bench of Justice Fatema Najib and Justice Sikder Mahmudur Razi on the same day. This court may hold hearing on the petitions today (Tuesday), sources said.
In one petition, the coordinators said, "The despotic Hasina-led Awami League and its affiliates spearheaded the 'July-massacre', during which over 1,000 individuals were killed, 400 students lost their eyesight, and more than 20,000 people sustained critical injuries.
Additionally, over 11,000 individuals were illegally detained nationwide, with 32 of the deceased being children, according to UNICEF.
However, the true extent of the killings and the brutalities perpetrated by the Hasina regime and its collaborators remains obscure due to severe restrictions on the dissemination of information, hospitals were barred from sharing data, CCTV footage was confiscated and some victims were buried without identification at the behest of the regime.
So the actions of the Hasina-led Awami League amount to terrorism and as such the government bodies concerned are liable to be directed to ban all political activities of Bangladesh Awami League and 10 other parties and declare them as terrorist organisations."
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