A POLICE officer was killed in Harare’s Glen View suburb on Sunday after suspected MDC-T youths attacked a ZRP detail investigating reports they were holding an illegal meeting.
Under the country's public order legislation all political gatherings and meetings must be cleared with the police.
ZRP spokesperson, Andrew Phiri, said a member of the police reaction group died following the skirmishes at Glen View 3 Shopping Centre.
“There was an illegal rally in Glen View and police details went to inquire what was happening. It is in the process that the suspected rowdy MDC-T youths started attacking the policemen with stones and other objects,” Phiri told the government-run Herald newspaper.
"During the attack, one of the officers was hit and fell unconscious and was pronounced dead on arrival at Harare Central Hospital."
Another officer was seriously injured during the skirmishes.
However, MDC-T spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora suggested the assailants were not members of his party.
"I received something like that. Our preliminary investigations indicate that the police attacked patrons at a bar," he said.
A witness said one of the officers was hit by a chair in the head before the youths started kicking him while he lay unconscious.
"The youths usually meet at that bar, but today (Sunday) when they had gathered police came trying to disperse them," the witness said.
"It is in the process that we saw the youths attacking the officers. We do not know who provoked who. One of them was hit by a chair until it broke while the other one was hit by a big stone.
"One cop fell unconscious and the group mobbed him and started kicking him.”
The murder will heighten tensions in Zimbabwe's power sharing government. The MDC-T accuses security forces of aligning themselves with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party, but police chief Augustine Chihuri has accused the MDC-T of spreading false information about his forces.