Three leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement yesterday withdrew the two writ petitions they had filed against the Awami League and 10 other political parties, and the past three general elections.

Their lawyer Ahsanul Karim withdrew the petitions, which were filed on Monday, from the High Court.

He told the HC bench of Justice Fatema Najib and Justice Sikder Mahmudur that his clients would not proceed with the petitions.

The bench then rejected the petitions as "not pressed", meaning they were not presented properly.

The lawyer, however, did not disclose the reasons behind the withdrawal.

"My clients have instructed me not to proceed with the petitions before the court. I don't know the reason behind the decision," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

On Monday, Abul Hasnat aka Hasnat Abdullah, convener of the movement; Sarjis Alam, one of its key coordinators who is now the general secretary of the July Martyrs Memorial Foundation; and Hasibul Islam, an assistant coordinator, submitted two separate writ petitions through their lawyers.

One sought rules to ban all political activities of AL and 10 other parties, and to debar them from all future elections.

It also sought a rule to declare the parties "terrorist organisations for the indiscriminate killings of citizens, destroying democratic institutions, and unconstitutionally taking state power".

The other petition sought a rule to cancel the results of the three national elections held in 2014, 2018 and 2024 under the AL government.

These polls were held without lawful authority and had no legal acceptance, it said.

The petition also sought a rule asking why the MPs elected from these 11 parties in the three elections would not face sedition charges, along with HC directives to cancel the benefits the lawmakers received from the government, including plots and duty-free vehicles. 

This newspaper could not reach Sarjis and Hasnat for comments.

Hasibul Islam told The Daily Star, "The petitions were withdrawn but legal actions will be taken in the future after the petitions are edited.

"Political parties that sided with the Awami League during the students' movement will be prevented from political activities."

Two other top leaders of the movement, preferring anonymity, mentioned two reasons behind the withdrawal of the petitions.

They said one of the reasons was that the petitions were filed without consultation with other leaders of the movement and the other was that some of the political parties against whom the petitions were filed had actually sided with the students during the movement.

Apart from the AL, the other parties are Jatiya Party (Ershad); Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD); Bikalpadhara Bangladesh; Tarikat Federation; the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB); Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); Jatiya Party (Manju); Ganatantri Dal; Marxist–Leninist (Barua); and the Socialist Party of Bangladesh.

When naming JSD in the petition, they put down the address of the ASM Abdur Rab-led JSD office, while the "Marxist-Leninist (Barua)" had no office address and no such registered political party has this name.

The petitions also did not mention the office address of the Socialist Party of Bangladesh. Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BASAD) uses the "Socialist Party of Bangladesh" as their name in English.

Of the parties, LDP, CPB, BASAD and Rab-led JSD had waged movements against the AL government for long and sided with the students during the quota reform movement, and thus their inclusions in the petitions outraged many.

"Hasnat and Sarjis filed the writ petitions without final discussions with us. We held a meeting after the petitions were filed, and in the face of criticism, a decision was taken to withdraw them," one of the leaders told The Daily Star yesterday.