On Tuesday, the National Investigation Agency was at 18 different places in Punjab and Haryana for three separate cases that all point back to the Pakistan-based terrorist. Covering nine districts, the move was to put a name to Bhatti’s henchmen and make sense of a wider conspiracy behind some of the 2025-26 attacks, per the agency.
Raids target alleged cross-border terror-gangster links
You could call it a hard line against a network they say is run from over the border. In the course of the operation, investigators have been through several people to get some leads and confirm who the local fixers are, an official put it.
They hit 18 premises in nine districts at once. The idea on Tuesday was to close in on anyone thought to be of help to Bhatti or part of the mix in the three open cases.
What investigators seized and examined
NIA personnel walked away with a number of digital gadgets and papers. They also put together some info on the comms and money trails of folks we’ve already had our eye on in these matters.
Everything has been handed over for a proper review, forensics and all. Some have been given notice to come in and be part of the inquiry, the agency says.
The three cases under probe
Haryana is where two of them are. NIA is putting the November 2025 IED at the Women Police Station in Sirsa, and the one at Baldev Nagar in Ambala in January 2026, at Bhatti’s feet.
With the Sirsa matter, they filed a chargesheet in May 2026 for nine, Bhatti and a handler from Pakistan named Sohail Ahmad alias Sohail Baloch among them. The one in Ambala involves a car bomb; one of the ones in custody had been in contact with Bhatti.
Then there is the one in Punjab, which is older. NIA has connected the March 2025 grenade incident at the Jalandhar home of Roger Sandhu to Bhatti. They made him an absconder in their April 2026 chargesheet, along with another accused.
Key details at a glance
Here is what the agency is pointing to:
– 18 locations in as many as nine districts were covered.
– All three have a thread to Shahzad Bhatti.
– A good amount of digital and paper work was taken.
– Now it’s in for forensic and technical eyes.
– Some have been sent notices.
Why this crackdown matters
We’re talking about police outposts in Haryana being blown up and a public figure’s house in Punjab being hit with a grenade. If you can follow the money and the messages they found in the seizures, you can break the network’s spine, which is what the investigators are after.
To the officials, it’s a way of dealing with a new kind of threat: where you have gangsters and terror handlers in the same room. That mix is what makes for cross-border plans with local hands-on work, and that’s a risk for everyone, law enforcement included.
What comes next
NIA will be sifting through what they got on Tuesday to see how the pieces fit. Those with a notice in hand will be asked some questions, and the data will be combed for any overlap between the cases.
It’s an aggressive, open-ended probe. The goal is to map out every link to the Bhatti-related violence in the region, using both the old chargesheets and what they’ve just put their hands on.
