The Movement for Democratic Change formation led by Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai voiced concern on Tuesday at the arrest and detention of its councilors in the northwestern resort town of Victoria Falls.
The party said nine of its city councilors and some youths associated with the party were arrested over the weekend for allegedly disrupting a council meeting on development at a community hall in the Victoria Falls township of Chinotimba.
It said police were refusing to arraign the councilors on grounds that they had not received instructions from their superiors. No comment could be obtained from the police.
Elsewhere, the party's secretary for its Masvingo South branch, Elson Muthonori, charged he was abducted at gunpoint Saturday by army officers for wearing MDC regalia.
Mutonori said he was interrogated and threatened by his abductees the whole night at a hotel in Chivi belonging to a member of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
The MDC provincial secretary for Matabeleland North, Gift Mabhena, told reporter Patience Rusere he believes the arrests in Victoria Falls were politically inspired.