The mutilated bodies of four young men bore witness yesterday to the latest atrocities of the Mugabe regime in the run-up to next week’s elections.

The victims were murdered while defending the home of a local leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), as the campaign of terror against the opposition reached a new pitch.

They represent the most deaths in a single day since Robert Mugabe lost the presidential elections ten weeks ago. Three of the men were MDC youth activists in the sprawling dormitory township of Chitungwiza about 20 miles (30km) south of Harare. The fourth was a passer-by, abducted because he did not know the secret slogans and salutes used by the ruling Zanu (PF) youth organisation to identify supporters. All four had their skulls smashed, and some had their lips and genitals cut off.

The bodies of Archford Chipiyo, 28, the son of Philemon Chipiyo, the district chairman of the MDC in Chitungwiza, Yona Genti and the unidentified young man, were found in tall grass at the side of the main southbound road out of Harare about midday on Wednesday. The body of the fourth, Nyoni Light, was dumped near a shopping centre on the outskirts of Chitungwiza.

The township, with a population of more than a million, has been the scene of numerous petrol bombings, abductions and assaults in the past week as Zanu (PF) mobs drag mostly young people out of their homes and force them to join them, marching and sloganeering through the night.

Philemon Chipiyo, 59, a respected alderman for the Chitungwiza town council for the last 25 years, said that about 200 Zanu (PF) youths attacked his home at midnight on Tuesday, but were repulsed by his guards.

“They came back again later, with five pick-up trucks and a [Mercedes] Benz,” he said. The latter is usually used by senior Zanu (PF) officials. “They smashed down the wall, and they were firing shots.” Mr Chipiyo produced a live round found inside the house, as well as a stabbing spear left behind. Along the wall of a long corridor were long smears of blood.

“One of the [MDC] young men pulled me out of the house and we ran away, but my son and the other three ran into the house, and they were trapped and beaten there.” The four young men were forced on to trucks and taken away by militias chanting slogans of Mr Mugabe’s party, witnesses said. They were last seen by a neighbour being taken to a nearby creche, used as a Zanu (PF) base.

Police were called, but did not arrive, Mr Chipiyo said. He went to report to a nearby police station a few hours later, at 7am. “They came but they did nothing. The next we heard was that the bodies were in the mortuary.”

He sent one of his sons, Alban, to Harare central hospital mortuary to identify the bodies found next to the road. “Alban said Archford’s lips were gone and his eyes were pulled out,” he said. Austin Chipiyo, another son, went to Chitungwiza hospital to identify the body of Ngoni Light. “His head was also broken,” he said. “His genitals had been taken off. They were in his trousers. I saw it myself.”

A day after the attack on the Chipiyos, three opposition councillors in Chitungwiza were forced to flee with their families when their homes were set alight by petrol bombs. They escaped unhurt.

Torture and the mutilation of bodies appears to be a new tactic employed by Mr Mugabe’s mobs. Amnesty International reported that 12 bodies had been found in Zimbabwe yesterday. Most had been tortured to death, it said.

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