Binga shooting incident, victim's lips, nose, ears cut off

THE decapitated body of one of the four victims of the Binga shooting incident had its lips, nose and ears cut off, eyes plucked out while the other three had several gunshot wounds on the heads and chests.

The beheaded body was found in a maize field about 1, 5km from other bodies.  On the vehicle in which the three bodies were found was a dead porcupine.

Chronicle visited the scene of suspected murder yesterday, which is about 15km from Manjolo Business Centre where the visibly shocked villagers were still trying to come to terms with the gruesome killing.

A heavy presence of armed police officers was observed across the area and the news crew had to seek permission from the senior officers to be allowed to visit the scene.

However, they were barred from talking to villagers.

 Also shocked, the local leadership condemned the murder saying it was surprising that all the victims were from outside Binga.

A man from Hwange, Alfred Nyirenda visited the mortuary at Binga and identified his son, Alvin, who died in the shooting.

Ward 12 Councillor Mathias Mwinde said Binga was no longer safe as villagers were now scared of going to their fields.

He said: "The most painful part is that none of these people are from Binga but they chose to do their illegal dealings here, that is bad. We pray the police will catch the criminals as soon as possible to retain sanity."

Binga North MP, Prince Madubeko Sibanda said the murder had shocked the whole district.

"These guys were working as a team and we suspect the four were separated from the six deliberately. The woman was a well known businesswoman although not from Binga. Usually strangers visit Binga to commit crime and this should be stopped because it sends a wrong message about Binga."

The District Administrator, Lydia Banda Mbethi urged police to investigate the matter thoroughly saying the suspects wanted to fool people into thinking that it was an accident.

A villager, Million Ngwenya said the bodies were discovered by a passerby on Monday morning about 1, 5km from Nkonkane River.

"The beheaded man's body was found in a field on top of one of the hills near Nkonkane River. The murderers chopped off the head, plucked out the eyes and cut off the nose, lips and ears. Such brutality was only experienced during the war and we wonder what really the motive was," said Ngwenya.

The area is hilly and densely vegetated and the crew was met with a smell of blood and a stench of decomposing porcupine (inungu) which was also in the car.

Ngwenya said the four dead were regular visitors at Manjolo Business Centre in the last few days where they would buy food and disappear.

"What confuses most of us is that although only four bodies were found, these people used to buy meals for six people everyday but only four would come out of the car while the other two remained in the car.

We are beginning to suspect that the murderers were foreigners," he said adding, "We suspect these people were into poaching business because a porcupine was found beside their bodies."

Nobody knew where they were staying as they would only be seen buying food during the day.

Bodies of the four were taken to Binga District Hospital mortuary where they are now decomposing and attacked by maggots as the hospital has gone for some days without electricity.

The truck was still submerged in water under the Ngongonye Bridge.

The suspected murderers allegedly stole all valuables from the victims.

A man from Hwange identified as Alfred Nyirenda visited the mortuary to identify his son, Alvin's body and openly shed tears seeing his body, which had several gun shots on the chest and head.

"All the bodies are decomposing and now deformed while maggots are everywhere," said Nyirenda.

He said his son went to Binga on December, 3 and a receipt found in his pocket showed that he had bought vehicle spare parts.