The media statement by Patriotic Front (PF) chairperson for Youth and Security, Stephen Kampyongo on the assault and killing of party members and sympathisers in the country is worrying.
However the concern should act as a wakeup call for Zambia to realise that the country is sleepwalking into anarchy and lawlessness.
We say this after noting that by the time Mr Kampyongo was issuing the statement on the assault of Pamela Chanda, another PF member Chris Mwale, a bricklayer was murdered in Ndola by UPND members.
In other parts of the country, assaults on PF members by UPND members are being reported by Police.
It is sad to note that poor Pamela Chanda of Bondwe area in the Southern Province was brutally assaulted by UPND members for the simple reason that she is a PF sympathiser.
A video has since emerged and has been circulating on social media clearly showing how the defenceless lady was attacked by a mob of UPND thugs brandishing an assortment of weapons.
The Ndola PF cadre was not lucky since he was killed and his body is lying at Ndola General Hospital mortuary with the other injured man who was caught in the fracas admitted at the same hospital.
In a spate of violence targeted against PF and non-UPND members and politician, the UPND on Tuesday severely beat Chavuma independent parliamentary candidate Grace Njapau, then on Wednesday, cadres from the party beat up Kalomo central independent parliamentary candidate Smart Muwele soon after a News forum organised by the Catholic church in the area.
Like Mr Kampyongo, we feel the behaviour being exhibited by the UPND is unacceptable anywhere in the civilised world.
We would like to remind Zambians that the violence we are witnessing is akin to the post-independence political clashes between the African National Congress (ANC) of Harry Nkumbula and the United National Independence Party (UNIP) of Kenneth Kaunda.
The clashes prompted the two leaders to meet and sign the Choma declaration on 27 June 1973 outlawing plural politics since it became synonymous with tribalism.
The peace we are enjoying now is partially a result of that declaration when Nkumbula and Kaunda put Zambia first above their political interests.
Since President Edgar Lungu has lived up to the resolutions of the peace indaba organised by the Church to promote peace by shunning political violence, we are fingering the UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema as squarely being responsible for clashes between his party members and PF cadres.
We are reminding authorities for an umpteenth time that Hichilema is abnormally desperate knowing that he is headed for a fifth loss on August 11.
This is why he has waged war to win this election and he feels nothing should stand in his way of ascending to Plot One.
For the sake of Mother Zambia which is bigger than any politician, we feel the political violence we are witnessing now has to be stopped and its orchestrators arrested.