Harare - A pro-democracy activist and journalist abducted in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Monday is still missing.
Itai Dzamara, 36, was abducted from a barber shop in Glenview as he was having a haircut on Monday morning, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said in a statement on Tuesday.
His abductors were travelling in a white twin-cab bakkie with a “blurred” number plate, the lawyers' group said.
Witnesses said the men accused him of stealing a cow. Since his abduction, Dzamara's phone has been switched off and he has not had any contact with his family.
Rumours have been circulating on social media and at least one news website that he has been found dead, but they have not been confirmed and no reliable source is cited.
“Lawyers have since filed an urgent... application to compel whoever is holding Dzamara to bring him before the court so as to determine if he should really be in detention,” ZLHR said.
Dzamara had been staging an on-off protest in central Harare calling for President Robert Mugabe to step down. Police in the capital beat him unconscious in November 2014, and attacked a rights lawyer who had gone to his defence.
Twitter user Chipo Matshe wrote Tuesday: “Please everyone make sure that #ItaiDzamara is found and brought back safely! Like the good #Zimbabwean civil servants we are!”
Journalist Kelvin Mupungu said: “Updates on #ItaiDzamara I just spoke to Pat Dzamara the brother, he said he still doesn't know. So let's pray - Matewu.”
Sapa