noida even though over a hundred people have been arrested companies that suffered the brunt of wednesdays violence are left with more questions than answers companies feel that the motive behind the violence wasnt merely to protest poor working conditions but was more an attempt to loot and vandalize even if the protests started out initially as a protest of workers unions it soon turned into destruction eyewitnesses said that a little before 9am a protest march consisting of trade union members had arrived at the hosiery complex in phaseii however within half an hour the group had transformed into an unruly mob of over a thousand armed with sticks and stones picked up from nearby construction sites cops were present from the beginning since the phaseii police station is located adjacent to the factories being vandalized however the understaffed police was unable to contain the situation finally the protests were contained at 1pm when additional forces were brought in from ghaziabad and meerut while moving away from the police the mob dispersed and a large group made their way towards the motherson sumi systems automotive factory mss one of the two factories that had suffered the maximum brunt of the mobs fury according to the manager of mss the mob didnt consist of their workers police and factory management added that the areas proximity to yakubpur and nayagaon villages only increased the polices helplessness to combat the situation as the crowd swelled as a number of villagers joined the funinternational printopac limited ippl was the other factory that suffered most on wednesday the mob set afire four cars while vandalizing at least 40 more parked inside the complex we shut operations and let workers go when we heard of the protests at 9am but that didnt deter the mobsters had they come to negotiate better working conditions they wouldnt have resorted to such mindless violence said a senior manager at ippl the district labour department said that even though there had been disconnected complaints from the rural parts of greater noida there have been no precursors for labour unrest in the industrial area at phase ii and added that the trade unions at the hosiery complex werent strong trade unions however differed workers at the hosiery complex in noida have been working for years without any significant increase in pay to match the times their pent up anger is understandable but the matter still needs to be investigated the police needs to find out how many of those in the mob were actually workers said dranimesh das president iftu delhi