Imphal, May 12: Labourers today joined the indefinite strike by owners of the stone crushers in northern Imphal in protest against extortion demands by militant outfits.

Twenty-five stone crushers under the banner of Northern Valley Stone Crushers’ Association suspended their activities on May 8 for an indefinite period.

Refusing to disclose the identity of the groups that served the extortion and the exact amount demanded, a spokesperson for the association said various groups had made the demands, which were beyond the means of the stone crushers.

“If we start paying them, more and more outfits will start demanding their shares. Manipur has so many militant groups, we simply do not have the means to pay all of them,” one of the stone crushers said.

The stone crushers held a sit-in at Pheidinga in Imphal West on Thursday and appealed to the groups to withdraw their demands and threats.

As none of the groups responded to the appeal, the labourers decided to join the agitation from today.

Nearly 500 labourers of the association took part in the protest held at Pheidinga.

“Suspension of work has hit hard the labourers as everyone is poor. After the work stopped, we are now on the verge of starvation,” a labourer, Khomdombi Devi, said. Khomdombi, who has an ailing husband and four children to support, is the sole breadwinner of the family.

“My husband worked at a stone crusher. After he fell ill, I had to replace him to keep the family hearth burning. With the meagre money I earn, I send my children to school. Since I stopped working four days ago, we do not have the means to get the daily requirements,” Khomdombi said.

The situation is the same for all labourers.

“While I was working, the shop in our locality used to give me the goods on credit. After I stopped working, the shop refused to give me anything anymore. I do not have any rice for tomorrow,” said another woman, who with her husband used to work at the same stone crusher at Sekmai in Imphal West.

While appealing to the armed groups to withdraw their monetary demands, the labourers said they would wait for some more days for the groups to respond.

If the outfits failed to respond by that time, the labourers would launch an agitation.

The owners of Manipur’s inter-state bus operators today held a similar sit-in near Kangla Fort in Imphal from 10am to 4pm.

Inter-state bus services operating between Imphal and Guwahati, Shillong, Dimapur and other states in the region suspended their services since May 5 to protest extortion demands made by militant outfits.

According to the bus operators, various militant groups demanded amounts between Rs 5,000 and Rs 30,000 from the bus operators and ticket counters.

“We could not pay the money so they told us to stop service and close the counters. Under the circumstances, we did not have any other alternative but to stop service. We will not resume service until the demands are withdrawn,” a spokesman for the All Manipur Inter-state Bus Association said.