Don't fear violence, report to police: ICEA to smartphone makers

NEW DELHI: India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) has asked its members to report to police any "unlawful protests" or acts of vandalism taking place at their factories, retail stores and offices amid anti-China sentiments.

The industry body's communication comes against the backdrop of incidents of unlawful protests and vandalism at facilities of some of its members.

Manufacturers, brand owners, technology providers, VAS application and solution providers, distributors and retail chains of mobile handsets and electronics devices are part of ICEA.

Some of the prominent names include Apple, Foxconn, Lava, and Chinese entities such as Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Huawei.

In a letter dated June 25, ICEA said it has been informed of unlawful protests being staged at or outside their factory complexes, offices and retail stores/ points and incidents of targeted vandalism of sign boards and bill boards of member companies of "country of a certain origin".

Fringe elements while staging unlawful protests further take law into their hands and engage themselves in illegal acts, it noted.

Such acts include "putting locks, causing obstruction in the ingress/egress, threatening while being armed with deadly weapons (iron rods/sticks, etc), shouting abusive slogans, inciting crowd to create violence etc, besides indulging in acts of vandalism and causing damage to the sign boards/ bill boards/ display counters etc," the letter said.

Workforce employed by these companies have also not been spared to instill fear and apprehension in them, it added.

"Neither us nor our workforce need to be scared of such elements and acts. We have not succumbed or cowed to such browbeating, intimidation and unlawful acts and commission of offences by such fringe elements," the grouping said in the strongly-worded letter.

Asserting that such incidents should not be ignored or overlooked, ICEA said appropriate and timely action needs to be undertaken so as to ensure that "the persons/ group involved be brought to books, dealt sternly within the confines of law".

"The affected member should immediately report the matter to the local police station and the senior officials in hierarchy about such incidents for appropriate legal action and prosecution by the police," it said.

Amid the standoff between Indian and Chinese forces in Ladakh, there are calls for boycott of Chinese products from certain quarters.