An MDC activist was on Wednesday evening abducted from Tafara-Mabvuku by suspected state security agents who assaulted and dumped in Mandara suburb.
Owen Chari, who is currently admitted at a local hospital in Harare, disclosed his near-death experience at the hands of his captors in an interview 263Chat from his hospital bed. He revealed that five men driving a Toyota Fortuner and armed with AK-47 assault rifles picked him up close to his home at around 8 pm. Said Chari:
They asked me to lie down and I asked them why, and they said don’t ask why, lie down. They bundled me into the car. They told my kids to run and not to look back. They drove out of Mabvuku along Mabvuku drive.
At Mabvuku turnoff, Mutare road, they turned to the left and took a dusty road to the right which goes to Epworth. Just after the railway line, they asked me to disembark from the car. They started beating me. They said, tell us the person who was sponsoring you guys, the person who was giving you money to demonstrate and I told them there is nobody…
As if this was not enough, they asked me to carry Zimbabwe with my head, so I had to put my head on the ground with my hands on my back and they were beating me with a sjambok, with logs, with the butt of the gun. The only guy who did not beat is the one who was in police uniform…they asked me where is your MP; Chidhakwa.
…the other said I am going to shoot you, lie down. I lied down and prayed ready to die. He appeared pulling a trigger and his colleague refrained him saying, ‘don’t kill him’. I was hit in the face with an object I suspect is a log and I was bleeding.
Chari admitted that like any other citizen, he took part in last week’s protests but denied any allegations of looting.
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