Fresh details on circumstances surrounding the weekend
shooting incident that claimed the life of a soldier in Chivhu, about 140km
south of Harare along the Harare-Masvingo Highway, have emerged.
On Saturday, two men managed to disarm two soldiers at a
small makeshift police base in central Chivhu, opening fire and killing Lance
Corporal Lorance Mupanganyama and injuring Corporal Peter Zvirevo.
The two men, according to the police, were later gunned
down in a shoot-out with the police and the Zimbabwe National Army officers at
Waterbury Farm, in Gutu, where they were reportedly hiding after walking for
about 15km from Chivhu town along the Chivhu-Gutu Highway.
In a statement, police claimed the two suspects in the
Saturday shooting incident had attempted to rob a fast-food outlet in the
town.But people who witnessed the incident said there were more questions than
answers in the whole drama, which has left the Chivhu community in fear.
One witness said the two approached the police base where
the now-deceased Mupanganyama and injured Zvirevo were resting in the company
of four female police officers.
One of them signalled to Mupanganyama to come out, which he
did and they had a conversation which ended prematurely.
“We heard the now-deceased saying ‘You are not my boss, I
will not take instructions from you’ before going back into the police base,”
the witness said.
“The two suspects followed, shouting that ‘today, you will
know that I am your boss’. This is when the whole drama started. There was an
exchange of gunfire and within a short period, the two came out of the police
base.
“He shouted, ‘hondo yatanga (the war has just begun’,
brandishing his gun in the air after shooting.”The witness said she was
concerned that the reason the soldier was killed may never be revealed since
the gunmen were dead.
Another source said: “The statement by the deceased soldier
that he did not report to the gunman suggests the two men, who are now dead,
could be members of the army. The two were only interested in the soldiers.
They attacked the soldiers and left the four female police officers who were in
the base.
“The base is too small, that some people hid is not true.
If they wanted to kill the police officers, they could have killed all of them.
“Furthermore, their faces were not covered and if they were
real criminals, they could have killed everyone there, including the female
police officers for fear of being able to be physically identified. But the
gunmen never even attempted to fire at any one of the people who were at the
place, but instead, ordered them to disperse.”
A senior police detective based in Chivhu, who also spoke
to NewsDay on condition of anonymity, supported the witness’ narrative.
“It is highly likely that the reason the soldiers were
killed has nothing to do with their patrol duties of that day considering that
the four female police officers in the base, as small as it is, escaped
unharmed,” he said.
“The gunmen fired at least 12 times, so if they were
randomly discharging the firearm, the police officers could also have been shot
and injured or even killed, but they were not, which means their shots were
targeted at the victims,” he added.
Another witness said Mupanganyama and the assailant who
signalled him to come out of the police base did not have a prolonged
altercation before the gunfire.
“I saw a soldier speaking with a man outside the police
base shortly before I heard gunshots,” the witness, who only identified himself
as Richard, said.
“I could not tell whether it was an argument or not because
their conversation could hardly be heard by people nearby.
“But from the way they were speaking, one could assume that
the two had a previous relationship before that encounter.”
After killing the gunmen on Sunday afternoon, the security
officers paraded the bodies of the deceased gunmen on the streets of Chivhu
before taking them to Chivhu General Hospital.
Curiously, two leaked police memos have different serial
numbers of the guns seized during the shooting incident.
One of the memos recorded assault rifles with serial
numbers ZA52410 and ZA49103 as having gone missing after the police base
shooting, while another has serial numbers ZA48889 and ZA54490 as that of
assault rifles recovered.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul
Nyathi said investigations were still ongoing.
“We have teams on the ground, investigations are still
ongoing,” he said, adding that he was not aware of the memos with difference
serial numbers. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment