Suspected cattle rustler killed by angry mob in Dowa

Dowa Police Station has warned Dowa communities against taking the law into their hands by administering mob justice on crime suspects.

This has been prompted by an incident which happened in the wee hours of Saturday, January 11, 2020 in Mitembo Village Traditional Authority (TA) Mkukula where a suspected cattle rustler identified as Limbani Wintala, 32, was killed by angry villagers from Chikunda Village.

According to Dowa Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), Sub Inspector, Gladson M’bumpha, an unknown caller reported to the Police that angry villagers were assaulting a suspected cattle rustler.

“Upon receipt of the matter, police rushed to the scene where they found the victim lying dead on the middle of the road with fatal wounds on the head and stomach and we took the dead body to the hospital for postmortem” he said.

The Police PRO expressed concern over this behavior and urged people in Dowa to avoid mob justice and to let the police do their work and carry out thorough investigations when such incidents occur.

“We are urging the public to refrain from taking the law into their own hands because it jeopardizes our investigations. So when these incidents occur, let the law take its course.” he said.

This incident has happened at least two months after another incident of mob justice occurred on October 26, 2019 where an angry mob beat and burnt another suspected cattle thief in the same Village.

Wintala hailed from Mwabwerachaje Village in the area of TA Msakambewa in Dowa and Police investigations are underway to trace and arrest the perpetrators.