Maputo — Unidentified assailants on Friday night kidnapped and murdered a member of Mozambique's Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), named Luis Jorge Sitoe.

According to a report in Tuesday's issue of the independent newsheet "Mediafax", four men, armed with a pistol, went to Sitoe's house in the Maputo suburb of Ferroviario de Mahotas and abducted him at about 21.45 on Saturday evening.

They drove him to Xiquelene, the site of a large informal market, where they shot him and dumped his body by the railway tracks. Sitoe was still alive, but died the following morning in Maputo Central Hospital.

Nothing was stolen from Sitoe's house, and it seems clear that he was targeted because of his police work. According to the spokesperson for the Maputo City Police Command, Alfredo Chefo, "It's very rare for criminals to attack members of the police in their own houses. Their habit has been to attack police officers in public places".

Sitoe is the first policeman to be murdered in Maputo this year, but in 2007 criminals kills ten policemen in the capital.