Harare - Six police officers and an activist were injured 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.
About 500 people participated in the rally, which ended with demonstrators throwing stones and police wielding batons, witnesses said.
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 spokeswoman 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.
Sapa-dpa