New Delhi, June 9 -- The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday searched 18 locations in Punjab and Haryana in connection with three terror-gangster network cases linked to Pakistan-based terrorist Shahzad Bhatti.

The NIA teams carried out these searches at 18 locations in nine districts of the two states and examined several persons to gather relevant information, the agency said in a statement.

The NIA sleuths also seized several digital devices and documents, along with information linked with various communication networks, financial transactions and activities of persons under the NIA's scanner in the three cases.

NIA said all the information and evidence collected during the searches have been sent for scrutiny as well as...