Unidentified gunmen on Saturday killed four people in Matta tehsil, a stronghold of pro-Taliban Tehrik Nifaz Shariah Muhammadi supporters, eyewitnesses said. No group claimed responsibility, but local residents said suspected militants could be behind the killing. “The deceased were riding a car when some unidentified men opened fire with automatic weapons,” said Riaz Khan, a local shopkeeper. “An Islamic vigilante group killed four absconders,” local administration chief Syed Mohammad Javed said. Their bodies were placed on the side of a road as a warning against crime, Javed told AFP. One of the alleged criminals managed to escape. The attack followed complaints from residents that the four had gone into hiding after being accused of crimes in the area, Javed added. The incident comes less than 24 hours after a vigilante group, calling itself the Eagle Force, publicly lashed three alleged kidnappers in front of a large crowd, also in Matta. The group is loyal to hardline cleric Maualana Fazalullah, who said in a sermon before the lashings that the punishment would deter would-be criminals. The three men were found guilty of kidnapping two young girls by a committee of Islamic clerics and sentenced to the whippings.