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SWAT, Oct 13: Four people were killed and another was injured when militants ambushed their vehicle in Arkot area of Matta tehsil on Saturday.
Local people said a businessman, Afzal Gujar, was injured, while his two brothers — Ayub Khan and Ahsanullah — and Shahzaman and Akber Bacha were killed. The whereabouts of Afzal are not known.
They said the bodies remained at the site for several hours but nobody, including the police, dared to take them away.
Last month, a bomb had exploded outside the businessman’s home. Following the blast, Afzal is reported to have kept in confinement a brother of a local militant and released him after intervention by local elders. Officials believed that the killings might be linked to the enmity between Afzal and militants.
Meanwhile, one Jamal Shah was killed when unknown people attacked a passenger vehicle in Shakardara. Local people suspect that the victim had been killed by his rivals over a feud.
AFP adds: Local administration chief Syed Mohammad Javed said an “Islamic vigilante group killed four absconders”.
Their bodies were placed on the side of a road as a warning against crime, he told AFP.
The attack followed complaints from residents that the four had gone into hiding after being accused of crimes in the area, he said.
The incident comes less than 24 hours after the vigilante group, the ‘Eagle Force’, publicly lashed three alleged kidnappers in front of a large crowd in Matta.
The group is loyal to cleric Maulana Fazalullah.
