Bulawayo Explosion Suspect Arrested By Army, Police Denied Access




Injured people are attended to as they lay on the ground following an explosion at a Zanu pf rally in Bulawayo, Saturday, June, 23, 2018. STR/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The military is reported to have arrested the person who allegedly threw a projectile which exploded at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rally in Bulawayo over the weekend.

The military is reported to have arrested the suspect in the aftermath of the explosion. However, The Zimbabwe Independent reports that the police’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has been unable to question the suspect as he has not been seen since the military arrested him. Security officials who spoke to the Zimbabwe Independent said,

Investigations are continuing; we have come across some good leads yet there are also complications. We have discovered the suspect we are looking for was seized by the army soon after the grenade attack incident. Witnesses told us this. We have interviewed many witnesses and they have given us useful information. However, we want to interview the suspect; but we don’t have access to him. So the investigations can’t proceed properly.

…After the grenade attack, police interviewed people who told them that they saw some guy who launched an object that was directed towards the VIP stage.

The witnesses said the man lobbed the item from about 30 metres to 35 metres from the podium, but it was diverted by a rope before shaving off a security aide’s cheek prior to landing and detonating.

Before launching the object, some people had seen him fiddling around. The suspect was wearing a yellow Zanu PF T-shirt, dark in complexion and nearly 1,7 metres tall. He is about 25 years old. After the incident, he melted in the crowd and disappeared before soldiers and police went on his trail. Police were late and found him already seized by soldiers.

The explosion injured at least 49 people and of those two have died from the injuries sustained. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that he suspects that the G40 Faction was behind the attack.

More: The Zimbabwe Independent