LAHORE: The two alleged terrorists, Rehan Butt and his father Fayyaz Butt, who had shot three police officials dead in two separate gun attacks in Lahore late on Thursday, were allegedly killed during a massive exchange of fire with law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in a house, where the suspects had made hostage a family, including two children, in Ravi Ryan locality of Muridke, early on Friday.

The joint operation, in which the father-son duo was killed, was carried out by Lahore police, Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Sheikhupura, and Elite police, after an hours-long chase from Yateem Khana, Multan Road, to Muridke.

The suspects had reportedly hijacked a single-cabin vehicle of the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), along with the driver, soon after carrying out the second deadly attack in Lahore on Wednesday, near the headquarters of the banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), targeting police personnel deputed there for security.

A senior official, who was coordinating during the joint operation with all the relevant law enforcement agencies, told Dawn that the third attacker, identified as Tariq, managed to flee and his last location was reported in Bagh, Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), which is considered a stronghold of the banned TLP.

Police, CTD and Elite Force took part in the operation at Muridke; third suspect ‘fled to AJK’

The official says that the AJK police and the law enforcement agencies from Punjab were working closely to track down and arrest Tariq.

He says that Rehan and his father Fayyaz used the snatched LWMC vehicle to reach a TLP-owned madressah (seminary) at Muridke, another stronghold of the banned outfit, where, in October 2025, Punjab Police and security forces had launched a pre-dawn operation against the TLP’s violent hardcore supporters, who were staging a protest camp on the GT Road during their march on Islamabad.

He adds that as the LEAs personnel, who were chasing them, surrounded the madressah, its management claimed that the suspects were not present there.

He says the police seized the DVR of the madressah to verify the claim. Later, it transpired that none of cameras installed there was functioning. However, the DVR was sent to Lahore for forensic analysis, he adds.

Meanwhile, he says, the LEAs were informed that the suspects were seen walking into a 14-kilometre-long forest belt adjacent to Ravi Ryan, a densely populated locality of Muridke.

On the directions of Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Abdul Kareem, the police used four thermal drones to trace the suspects, who were hiding in the forest area, to avoid manual search, which could have resulted in further loss of police personnel’s lives, the official says.

On noticing that they were being traced with the help of drones, he says, that the suspects kept hiding in the forest area till early dawn, before they entered the Ravi Ryan locality, where they barged into a house and took hostage the residents -- a woman and her two children.

The official says the suspects then threatened the police that they would kill the mother and her two children if any attempt was made to arrest or harm them.

He says that the LEAs personnel, devised a new strategy, and started marching towards the house.On seeing the charging personnel, the suspects opened fire on them, and in the ensuing crossfire, Rehan and Fayyaz were killed, the official claims.

To a question, he said the third suspect, Tariq, had reportedly fled away during the vigorous chase of the suspects by police.

According to the official, in an earlier exchange of fire, before the suspects were spotted running, carrying heavy weapons, in the same area, one of them had opened fire on a chasing station house officer (SHO), who remained unhurt. At that time, six SHOs from Lahore and Sheikhpura were participating in the operation to round up the terrorists, he adds.

The official source says that apparently the suspects had already planned to take shelter in the TLP seminary at Muridke after attacking the police.He says that the terrorists had switched off their mobile phones during and after the attacks on the police officials in Lahore to dodge the LEAs.

“We used human intelligence and hundreds of private and Punjab Safe Cities Authority cameras to track down the fleeing suspects,” the police official says, adding that Sheikhpura Regional Police Officer (RPO) Athar Ismail and DPO Bilal Zafar Sheikh had set up a temporary command post at Muridke during the operation.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2026