FAISALABAD: A number of Labour Qaumi Movement (LQM) workers continued sit-in outside the DCO office on third consecutive day on Monday against the owners` move to close powerlooms in Sidhar.

Worl(ers say the factory owners are observing strike just to suppress the voice the labourers.

However, owners say they will not open their units till action against the LQM activists who receive extortion money from them.

Carrying banners and flags of the LQM, the workers have been besieging the DCO main gate sinceSaturday night and demanding the opening of powerlooms in Sidhar closed since Aug 8.

Talking to reporters, workers say the loom owners have gone on strike for an indefinite period without informing the labourers. They say the conduct of loom owners is unlawful and the Punjab government should talce stock of the situation.

They say owing to closure of factories the labourers are facing financial problems. They say the owners claim that LQM office-bearers receive extortion money whereas the owners could not corrborrate their claims in meetings held at the DCO and SP Lyallpur Town offices on different days.The workers say they will continue their protest till restoration of the factories and will also receive their wages of strike days from the owners.

On the contrary, Sidhar Sector Council of Loom Owners President Adil Bari says the `miscreants` attached with the LQM have been receiving extortion money from factory owners and they have confessed it before the police and the district government officials as well.

`Not a single factory will resume its working until police and district government take action against the extortionists,` he says.

Bari says owners also want the extortion money back.