NIA charges eight, including Pakistan-based ‘terrorist’, in Ambala car blast case

The investigating agency detailed the roles of the accused and the conspiracy to attack the Baldeva Nagara police station “to spread terror among people targeting the police establishment”. | Photo credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed charges against eight accused, including Pakistani “gangster-turned-terrorist” Shehzad Bhatti, in connection with the January car bomb blast in Haryana’s Ambala.

The blast took place in the parking lot of the Baldev Nagar police station.

Mr. Bhatti is also wanted in other terrorist cases. The other seven arrested accused are Indian nationals. They have been identified as Karamjit Singh, Akash, Soureb, Raman Kumar, Satyam, Sukhdev Singh and Amarjeet Singh.

Police institutions as targets

In the chargesheet, the investigating agency detailed the roles of the accused and the conspiracy allegedly orchestrated by Mr Bhatti to attack the Baldev Nagar police station “with the objective of spreading terror among the people by targeting police institutions”.

It was alleged that the Pakistani terrorist had set up operational modules in India and tasked local operatives to provide logistics and explosives to carry out attacks on police installations as part of the plot. Mr Akash was Mr Bhatti’s main Indian agent, responsible for coordinating the attacks with the co-accused, the NIA said.

“Baldev Nagar police station was targeted after scouting for potential targets… Some of the accused parked a car full of gas cylinders and explosives inside the police station premises and even filmed the scene for dissemination and publicity,” the agency said.

The NIA alleged that Mr. Bhatti recruited and radicalized the accused through social media platforms and encrypted communication channels. He also established through various digital, electronic, documentary and forensic evidence that the accused remained in contact with the handler during the planned attack.

The agency has so far uncovered “the chain of recruitment, financing, operational coordination, procurement of explosives and execution of the terrorist act by the accused at the behest of Mr. Bhatti”.

Published – 11 July 2026 22:45 IST