POLICE say the five men who have so far been lynched and killed in different compounds of Lusaka on suspicion of being gassers are innocent.
The gassing attacks which initially began in Chingola on the Copperbelt spread to Ndola before shifting to Northwestern Province and are now being carried out in Lusaka.
Reports of people being gassed has ignited fear in residents who have now resorted to taking the law into their own hands.
This week alone, five men have been beaten and burnt death by mobs following gassing incidents of people in their homes.
But deputy inspector general of police operations Bonny Kapeso says according to investigations carried out by the police, all the mob victims are innocent.
“Investigations have revealed that the people who have been killed by mobs are actually innocent,” Kapeso revealed as he featured on Hot FM’s breakfast this morning.
Yesterday, Lusaka awoke to simultaneous riots in Chawama, Kanyama, Chaisa and John Howard Compounds over the gassing attacks.
The MTN headquarters in Lusaka’s Roma Township were evacuated after break-in around midnight on Wednesday in which police said assailants had poured an unknown petrol-like smelling chemical in the finance department pool office.
Later in the afternoon police arrested a 14-year-old boy of Luangwa compound after he sprayed unknown chemicals in a Grade 7 class at North Mead Basic school where four pupils had to be rushed to Shimuzi Clinic for treatment.
President Edgar Lungu has now deployed the Zambia Army to deal with violence and help find the “Ghost Gassers”.
The Head of State has offered a k250,000 reward for anyone who will provide information that will lead to the arrest of the master minders of the gassing attacks
