Political violence continued around Zimbabwe on Tuesday in the wake of the announcement by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai that he would not be a candidate in the presidential run-off election that the government of President Robert Mugabe appeared determined to go ahead with regardless.
Sources in Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change said a group of about 10 soldiers bearing arms attacked the rural home of MDC Organizing Secretary Elias Mudzuri, who is a member of parliament-elect, beating his 80-year-old father and other family members.
Seven people were taken to a Harare hospital for treatment following the episode.
The sources said the soldiers burned a truck and looted property seizing some Z$75 billion in cash. They said it was the second attack on Mudzuri’s rural homestead in two weeks.
His younger brother, Anthony Mudzuri, told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the soldiers fired more than 50 shots, wounding a young boy.
Elsewhere, opposition spokesman Pishai Muchauraya of Manicaland province said ZANU-PF militia abducted 32 people in the province on Tuesday alone.
Muchauraya said five ZANU-PF activists
raped a woman from the Mutare Central constituency in the presence of her husband before
abducting both of them.
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source in Chiredzi, Masvingo province, said suspected security agents shot and killed four
opposition youths and seriously injured another on Monday.
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VOA listener in Mhondoro, Mashonaland West province, said opposition supporters were being
woken up at dawn and thrown into rivers for their political affiliation. A
listener named Chamunorwa said he fears for their lives as some of the rivers are
crocodile infested.
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listener in Banket, also on Mashonaland West, said thousands of people from farms in the area were forced onto tractors to attend a ruling party rally held in
the area Tuesday.
More reports from VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe...