President Mugabe told his critics in the West that they could “go hang” yesterday as he intensified a crackdown against rising opposition to his rule.

Human rights workers spoke of an “ad hoc state of emergency” in a large swath of Harare’s volatile southwestern townships, where hundreds of police were deployed, attacking ordinary people at random.

“The number of people being badly beaten up is very high,” said a private doctor who asked not to be named. “We’re only seeing a tiny proportion of it. People are terrified of leaving their homes at night.”

As opposition militants showed that they were prepared to meet violent repression with increasing retaliation, concern was growing last night that Mr Mugabe may declare a state of emergency that would strip what is left of the curbs on him. Unofficial reports said that the issue had been discussed at Cabinet and in the politburo of his ruling Zanu (PF) party this week.

The southwestern townships have been the focus of a ferocious operation to squash dissent since February 25, when police defied a court order to allow the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to hold a rally. The move set off a violent reaction from opposition activists, culminating in the savage three-hour assault on Sunday of Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC president, and 30 of his lieutenants and supporters.

“It’s the West as usual,” Mr Mugabe said yesterday during a surprise visit to Harare by President Kikwete of Tanzania. “When they criticise the Government trying to prevent violence and punish the perpetrators of that violence, we take the position that they can go hang.” Western diplomats have linked Mr Jikaya’s arrival with increasing alarm among African leaders that the situation in Harare was out of control.

“The African Union is very uncomfortable,” John Kufuor, the President of Ghana and the Chairman of the AU, said in remarks that were uncharacteristically blunt for an African leader. “The situation in your country [Zimbabwe] is very embarrassing.”

Doctors said that they were dealing with a constant stream of broken limbs and severely bruised and bloodied victims. Among them were six young women from Mufakose township who were dragged out of the shop they work in and beaten up because police said the red company logos on their T-shirts were MDC symbols.

Mr Tsvangirai was still in the private Avenues Clinic yesterday but a brain scan around the four-inch laceration on his head revealed no sign of a fracture, hospital staff said. “He’s very cheerful,” an official said.

“He’s defiant and he’s ready to roll.” He was expected to be discharged today.

The state media has blacked out all information on the assaults but Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the Information Minister, made a tacit admission yesterday when he said: “Those who incite violence or actually cause and participate in unleashing it are set to pay a heavy price.”

Human rights organisations reported a continuing run of arrests in Harare yesterday, the second city of Bulawayo, the eastern city of Mutare, the central city of Gweru and the nearby industrial town of Kwekwe, some of them related to firebombing incidents in Harare and Gweru on Tuesday.

The pressure has not quashed the unrest. Police tried for a second time on Tuesday to break up a continuing funeral vigil in Glenview township for Gift Tadare, who was shot dead by police on Sunday. They have refused to release his body. At 4am on Tuesday they opened fire on mourners refusing to stop singing. The next evening they raided again, forcing mourners to lie on the ground and beating them. The incident set off skirmishes as youths barricaded roads and hurled stones at police.

In Dzivaresekwa township late Wednesday youths overturned an ambulance. A central intelligence agent in Highfield was assaulted yesterday.

Not all the police officers have the stomach for violence. Township residents spoke yesterday of groups of policemen who hid themselves when they were deployed on riot duty.

A resident of Glenview said tha five officers had knocked on his door on Tuesday and asked if they could hide in his house until their shift was over. “They said that they had been sent to beat people but they didn’t want to. They stayed sitting on the lounge all day.”

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