PESHAWAR, June 27: The bullet-riddled body of chief of the anti-Taliban Bazidkhel Qaumi Lashkar — Fahim-ur-Rehman, who escaped at least seven attempts on his life since 2008 — was found in his white Land Cruiser on the Ring Road here on Wednesday morning.

The bodies of his three close friends and associates, Altaf Bacha, Haji Niaz Muhammad and Rahim Lala, were also found in the vehicle.

Superintendent of Police Asif Iqbal said that personnel of the bomb disposal squad found the bodies after they had been informed about them at around 6.30am.

He said the slain men might have been killed elsewhere and their bodies moved to the Ring Road.

An investigation officer, Abdur Rehman, told Dawn that the deceased were slain at least 12 hours before their bodies were moved to the Ring Road. “We found a briefcase and two empty bullet shells of 9mm in the vehicle but there were no arms and ammunition,” he remarked.

The chief of the Bazidkhel lashkar and his three associates sustained multiple bullet injuries to their heads and chests, he said.

An officer of the Paharipura police station said the four men seemed to have been shot at from close range because there was no mark of violence on their faces.

According to police personnel, the relatives had lost contact with the four men on Tuesday morning.

They said Mr Rehman had survived at least three suicide attacks and several other bombings blamed on the Taliban and Mangal Bagh, who heads the Lashkar-i-Islam group.

On June 12, two of his police guards were killed in a suicide attack on his vehicle near his residence, but he survived simply because he was sitting in another car at the time.

Ironically, both the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-i-Islam have claimed responsibility for the murder of Mr Rehman and his three associates.

“We killed Fahim and his comrades. They raised a militia against us and wanted to defeat us,” Ehsanullah Ehsan, the spokesman for the TTP, told journalists by phone.

On their part, the Lashkar-i-Islam group said they would soon release a video of the four slain men.