Zimbabwean riot police yesterday arrested the country's top opposition leader and shot a man dead as they crushed a planned protest against President Robert Mugabe.
Witnesses said police fought skirmishes with rock-throwing opposition supporters in the Harare township of Highfield, where organisers had tried to hold the prayer rally to address Zimbabwe's deepening political and economic crisis.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change
Police arrested Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition officials after blocking their motor convoy from driving to the rally site.
The party said Mr Tsvangirai and the others were severely assaulted, and that one MDC activist had been shot dead.
Police said yesterday a patrol had killed a man after being attacked by "MDC thugs" at a shopping mall in the area, and that three police officers had suffered severe injuries.
Mr Tsvangirai's lawyer claimed today his client was beaten in detention and had to be taken to hospital for treatment.
"He was in bad shape, he was swollen very badly. He was bandaged on the head. You couldn't distinguish between the head and the face, and he could not see properly," Innocent Chagonda said after visiting the Harare police station where Mr Tsvangirai was being held.
Mr Chagonda said he had not spoken to the MDC leader because police had denied lawyers access to the dozens of opposition and civic leaders arrested in the crackdown on anti-government forces.
Political tensions have risen in Zimbabwe as it sinks deeper into its worst economic crisis in decades, with inflation above 1,700 per cent, unemployment close to 80 per cent and shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange.
Mr Mugabe (83), and in power since independence in 1980, dismisses the MDC as a puppet of Zimbabwe's former colonial master, Britain.
Authorities have tightened the screws on the opposition since violence broke out last month when police broke up a MDC rally despite a court order directing that it should be allowed.