GUJRANWALA, April 20: The Punjab Powerloom Owners’ Association has urged the anti-smuggling squad and other law-enforcement agencies to eliminate the smuggling of silk and cotton thread, due to which the powerloom industry is suffering from a serious slump.

At a meeting here on Sunday, the participants claimed that traders and industrialists were incurring heavy financial losses due to the slump. Hundreds of labourers had been rendered jobless as factories closed down.

They alleged that trucks were supplying the smuggled silk and thread directly to customers in connivance with the anti-smuggling squad.

When contacted, the anti-smuggling investigation cell denied the allegation and claimed that the anti-smuggling squad had only recently seized a huge quantity of smuggled goods including artificial jewellery worth hundreds of thousands of rupees, which were being smuggled from India and Afghanistan on trucks.

Check-posts had been set up on GT Road and solid steps were being taken to foil smuggling attempts.