TTP-linked attacks kill 3 policemen in Lahore, Punjab CM orders alert

Three policemen were shot dead and four others, including a passerby, were injured in two targeted attacks allegedly by banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) gunmen in Pakistan's Punjab province, police said on Friday, August 14.

The attacks took place in Lahore's thickly populated Badami Bagh area and at Yateem Khana Chowk, the headquarters of the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) on Thursday night.

Punjab Deputy Inspector General of Police Kamran Faisal told reporters that Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which is associated with the TTP, has claimed responsibility for the attacks both of which targeted police.

According to Faisal, in the first attack in Badami Bagh, armed men opened fire on two policemen and fled the scene leaving them critically injured. They were rushed to hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries.

He said an initial probe suggests Rehan Butt, a TTP member whose brother Faizan was killed during an encounter with the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab Police in 2024, was behind the attack. "It seems Butt targeted Sub-Inspector Adeel Ashiq, who was part of the CTD team which killed Faizan, also a TTP activist, in the encounter," the police officer said, adding that Faizan was involved in the killing of some police officials. The other policeman killed in the attack was identified as Asad.

The DIG said that an hour after the Badami Bagh incident, armed men targeted policemen deployed at the TLP headquarters at Yateem Khana Chowk on Lahore's Multan Road, opening indiscriminate fire. Three constables and a passerby sustained injuries, while the attackers escaped immediately. Constable Haris succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, while the condition of the other two policemen and the passerby was stated to be critical. "This second attack may also have been carried out by Rehan Butt and his accomplices," the police officer said.

He said a case has been registered against Butt and his TTP accomplices under charges of murder and terrorism.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has directed the police chief to put the entire police force in the province on high alert, and ordered massive search operations to round up the attackers, according to a statement from her office.