Ahmedabad: The investigation into a high-profile cyberterrorism case involving 18-year-old Jasim Shahnawaz Ansari has been officially handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). As per directives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ahmedabad unit of the Gujarat ATS transferred the case to the NIA on Friday.

Ansari, a resident of Nadiad, was arrested by Gujarat ATS for allegedly coordinating Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on over 50 Indian government websites between April and May 2025. The attacks targeted key domains linked to defence, finance, civil aviation, urban development, and several state governments. As per the information, Ansari had escalated the attacks following the launch of Operation Sindoor—India’s counter-response to the Pahalgam terror strike.

Operating through a Telegram group called AnonSec, Ansari and a group of juveniles discussed and launched coordinated DDoS attacks aimed at overwhelming government websites with artificial traffic. The group frequently shared screenshots of successful attacks, often laced with anti-national slogans like “Hi, India, we just took down your shield and servers.”

Investigations revealed that Ansari had taught himself Python programming via YouTube and used open-source tools from GitHub. These tools were run using Termux and Pydroid apps, while success was confirmed via platforms like checkhost.net. The Telegram group’s name and members’ handles were frequently changed to avoid detection.

An FIR was registered by Gujarat ATS under Sections 43 and 66F of the Information Technology Act, relating to cyberterrorism. With the NIA stepping in, the investigation is expected to widen in scope, possibly exploring national and international linkages behind the cyberattacks. DeshGujarat