Employees of National Forensic Lab continue strike demanding unpaid salaries

Employees of National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory (NFDPL) have been on a strike since March 15 demanding unpaid salaries from January. Danish International Development Agency (Danida), pulled off the funding for NFDPL on June 30 last year after financing it since its inception in 2001. The third phase of the project expired on the same day. Apart from nonpayment, 57 employees of NFDPL, also face the risk of losing their jobs as they have been asked by authorities to pass a test to be included in the fourth phase of the project run by the government. NFDPL has laboratories at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and also at locations outside of Dhaka. The requirement for a test has agitated the employees as many of them have been working there for more than eight years. Ashish Kumar Majumder, one of the scientists from the project who is participating in the strike, alleged that Abul Hossain, the director of the project, had issued a letter on June 29 last year asking all the employees to continue working although the third phase was about to end. Later, the employees were not paid and Abul Hossain turned his back on them, Ashish alleged. Since the beginning of the strike, employees of the laboratory have declined to test more than 20 DNA samples connected to different police cases till Sunday. Abul Hossain could not be reached for comment. Sabina Sultana, senior programme officer of the project, told the Dhaka Tribune that Abul was not in Bangladesh at the moment.