Tsvangirai supporters declare war on police, 6 officers injured

Six police officers and an activist were injured on Wednesday when demonstrators clashed with police after marching to the Zimbabwean parliament to demand the release of an anti-government campaigner, police said.

The opposition says state security agents have abducted Itai Dzamara, who went missing on Monday.

There are conflicting reports to the number of people who participated in the rally, which ended with demonstrators throwing stones and police wielding batons, witnesses said. The number of people who attended the march differs with publication with other sources claim 30 people and others have a number as high as 500.

Police said they were investigating the abduction of the former journalist, who has called on President Robert Mugabe to step down.

"Mr Itai Dzamara's wife reported that he was abducted by five male adults," police spokesperson Charity Charamba said.

"We are in no doubt as to the perpetrators of this abduction. We hold Mugabe and his regime responsible for this morbid and senseless act," opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said.

Noel Kututwa, a southern Africa deputy director for Amnesty International, called the abduction "deeply alarming."

Simon Khaya Moyo from Mugabe's Zanu-PF party said the government had nothing to do with Dzamara's disappearance.

"Who is Itai Dzamara? Zanu-PF has nothing to do with him, let alone a serious government like ours that has so many issues to deal with rather than to concentrate on one Dzamara," said Moyo.

In December, Dzamara sustained injuries while police were repressing a protest rally that he had organised.

Mugabe, 91, is the only leader Zimbabweans have known since independence from Britain in 1980.