FAISALABAD, Oct 31: The Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association has urged sales tax officials not to harass yarn dealers by issuing notices because they are already facing financial problems due to a recession in the market.

Talking to newsmen here on Wednesday, PYMA chairman Munawwar A. Shaikh said ST officials had served notices on yarn and cloth dealers for the payment of different levies. He said the government department should take cognizance of the market situation.

He said traders should not be victimized otherwise they would stop transacting their business. Due to a slump in the market, hundreds of yarn dealers and agents had already abandoned their business. In case steps were not taken to help sick industrial units, this sector would totally collapse, he said.

He urged the government to announce a package of incentives for the textile industry especially for cloth and yarn dealers so that they could play their role in boosting the exports.

CONFERENCE: A two-day biennial cancer conference will be held here at the Punjab Medical College under the aegis of the Pakistan Society of Clinical Oncologists on Saturday.

LOOTED: Dacoits took away five motorcycles and valuables from different parts of the city on Wednesday.

Five dacoits forced their entry into the house of Shahid in Razaabad and decamped with cash, gold ornaments and electronic appliances.

Two masked highwaymen snatched a motorcycle from a student, Rehan Ali, in Rajawala.

A trader, Muhammad Usman, was also deprived of his motorcycle by armed men on the Faisalabad-Sargodha Road.

The two-wheeler of Sarwar was taken away by three bandits on the Faisalabad-Jaranwala Road.

The motorbike of Tahir was stolen from outside a hotel, while another from Katcher Bazaar.

ARRESTED: Khurarrianwala police arrested a drug trafficker, Tahir Mahmood Gujjar, with 35kg hashish from a bus stand on the Faisalabad-Sheikhupura Road on Wednesday.