They protested the authorities' decision to abolish the nursing attendant posts from the police hospitals and said having lost the jobs, they are leading a miserable life, as they have no other way out of income.

They also threatened to go for tougher movement if their demand is not met immediately.

They were speaking at a press conference at Photojournalists' Association office in the city.

They said they had been working since April 2004, after getting appointment for the post under Bangladesh Police Hospitals Modernisation Project.

Bithika Rani Mistri, convener of Nursing Attendant Movement Committee, asked the authorities how they abolished the post of nursing attendants while the other posts under the project remained effective.

'There are the nursing attendants at different hospitals and recently the government ran an advertisement for the post for Ansar and VDP but here the authorities abolished it," said Bithika.

She said they met the director of the project Doctor Md Harun-or-Rashid (director of central police hospital) on July 12 but he said he has nothing to do for them.