NEW DELHI, Jun 9: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday searched multiple locations in Punjab and Haryana in connection with three terror-gangster network cases related to Pakistan-based terrorist Shahzad Bhatti.
NIA teams conducted coordinated searches at multiple premises at 18 locations in nine districts of the two states and examined several persons to gather relevant information.
They also seized several digital devices and documents, along with information linked with various communication networks, financial transactions and activities of persons under the agency’s scanner in the three cases, a statement issued by the probe agency said.
All the information and evidence collected during the searches have been sent for scrutiny as well as forensic and technical examination to unravel the larger cross-border conspiracy.
Notices have been issued to certain individuals to join the investigation for further examination as part of NIA’s ongoing probe aimed at unravelling the larger conspiracy behind the network operated by gangster-turned-terrorist Bhatti from across the border, the statement said.
“Today’s searches were focused on identifying Bhatti’s associates and others linked with the terror conspiracy related to all the three cases,” it said. NIA’s investigation so far in the case has traced the March 2025 grenade attack at the residence of social media influencer Roger Sandhu in Jalandhar, Punjab, to Bhatti.
In April 2026, NIA had chargesheeted Bhatti as an absconder, and one other accused in the case.
The anti-terror agency has further found that Bhatti had also masterminded the November 2025 explosion at the Women Police Station, Sirsa, Haryana and the January 2026 blast at Baldev Nagar police station in Ambala, Haryana.
In the Sirsa case, NIA had chargesheeted nine individuals, including Bhatti and another Pak-based handler Sohail Ahmad alias Sohail Baloch, in May 2026. The Baldev Nagar police station case relates to a car bomb explosion, in which one arrested accused was found to have been in touch with Bhatti.
Investigations in these cases are continuing as part of NIA’s aggressive efforts to trace all linkages in the terror attacks, the statement added.
