HARARE: Police have arrested a senior official from Zimbabwe’s war veterans’ association after it accused President Robert Mugabe of “dictatorial” behaviour in a shock rupture with the 92-year-old leader, lawyers said Thursday. Veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s independence war, who had previously been loyal Mugabe supporters, last week issued a statement bitterly denouncing the president, who faces growing signs of opposition. Douglas Mahiya, spokesman for the War Veterans’ Association, was arrested late Wednesday in Harare, according to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) group. “Information presently at hand is that the police are charging him with subverting a constitutional government and insulting the office of the president,” the lawyers said. A Mahiya family lawyer confirmed the arrest to AFP, but declined to comment further. The association’s secretary-general, Victor Matemadanda, was also taken from his rural home in Gokwe, north west Zimbabwe, after being summoned for police questioning.