The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday (June 9) searched multiple locations in Punjab and Haryana in connection with three terror-gangster network cases related to Pakistan-based terrorist Shahzad Bhatti.
Anti-terror agency 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.
NIA seizes digital devices and documents
During the search, NIA teams 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.
"All the information and evidence collected during the searches has been sent for scrutiny as well as forensic and technical examination to unravel the larger cross-border conspiracy," the agency said in a statement.
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. "Today's searches were focused on identifying Bhatti’s associates and others linked with the terror conspiracy related to all three cases," it said.
What did NIA investigation reveal?
The anti-terror agency'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 Shahzad Bhatti. In April 2026, NIA had chargesheeted Bhatti as an absconder, and one other accused in the grenade attack case.
NIA 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 pertains to a car bomb explosion, in which one of the arrested accused was found to have been in contact with Pakistan-based terrorist Bhatti.
The NIA said investigations into the case and related terror-gangster network cases are continuing as part of its intensified efforts to uncover all connections behind the attacks.
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