Murder suspect’s house torched at Ekwendeni
After a seven-hour clash with police, communities of Ekwendeni in Mzimba on Wednesday over-powered the law enforcers and torched a house belonging to one of the suspects who was arrested in connection to the murder of a taxi driver, Emmanuel Harawa.
So far, six people have been arrested in connection to the fracas.
Harawa was on Saturday murdered on Saturday close to Chipangana Forest by unknown people who had hired his vehicle.
But on Monday, the Police arrested six suspects, two of which are mechanics, who were found painting the stolen vehicle at a garage while one of them was found with the mobile phone of the deceased.
However, the communities blocked the Mzuzu-Karonga M1 Road and started stoning the police who were trying to control the situation and also secure the house.
The battle, which started at around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, got out of hand at around 6 o’clock in the evening when the police used teargas to disperse the crowd, which was largely made up of the youth.
Speaking in an interview, one community member who refused to mention his name said the communities are angry over the gruesome murder of Harawa.
“We do not want to hear of such deaths anymore,” he said.
The irate mob, which had petrol and stones, managed to set ablaze the house at around 11 o’clock in the morning before it dispersed.
However, Councillor for Lupaso Ward in Mzuzu, Samuel Gondwe, blamed the police for failing to handle the matter professionally.
Gondwe said the teargas which the police fired at the vendors at Ekwendeni market fueled the violence as vendors joined the communities.
However, Mzuzu Police publicist Martin Bwanali spoke in defense of the law enforcers.
Bwanali said the six suspects, have been charged with proposing violence and they will appear before court soon.
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