Zimbabwean doctors protesting the alleged abduction of a union leader have been met by a line of police in the capital as fears grow about government repression.

The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association has said its president Peter Magombeyi was abducted Saturday after calling for a pay strike. The southern African nation's health care system has largely collapsed in recent years along with the economy.

Several government critics in recent weeks have been abducted from their homes, tortured and warned by suspected state security agents to back off from anti-government actions.

The doctors on Wednesday are trying to march to Parliament in Harare.

Some critics have expressed concern that the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa is becoming more repressive than that of longtime leader Robert Mugabe, who died earlier this month.