A Jamaat-e-Islami man and a lawyer on Sunday 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 said, "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.