The recent arrest of 18-year-old Jasim Shahnawaz Ansari by the Gujarat ATS has revealed a sinister new frontier of cyber warfare against India. Ansari is accused of orchestrating coordinated cyberattacks on more than 50 Indian government websites in defence, finance, aviation, urban development, and state administrations between April and May 2025. The attacks spiked after India’s retaliatory Operation Sindoor in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack.
Cyberattacks Driven by Revenge & Cyber Tools
Ansari and some juveniles worked under the Telegram group “AnonSec” and planned and carried out Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, ATS officials said. The attackers designed the assaults to flood government websites with traffic and bring them down. Ansari has learned Python programming using YouTube tutorials and downloaded hacking software from GitHub, officials said. He has used mobile apps such as Termux and Pydroid to carry out these cyber attacks.
Ansari often kept changing handles and group names to avoid identification. “He subsequently confirmed the efficacy of the attacks with checkhost.net and posted screenshots within the AnonSec group along with anti-Indian messages like ‘Hi, India we just destroyed your shield and servers,'” the ATS release added.
A Youth Driven or Manipulated?
The probe uncovered a disturbing fact: Ansari had just flunked Class 12 science. It raises questions about the role played by youth frustration and vulnerability in cyberterrorism. The other juvenile is still studying in Class 12. The officials are investigating whether the young persons were acting independently or with foreign involvement. “Further scrutiny of the tools, software, and digital connections is ongoing.”. ATS officers are attempting to obtain digital footprints in the case, an ATS officer said.
On May 7, 2025, 20 government portals were targeted with the messages that read, “India may have initiated it, but we will be the ones to complete it,” echoing the direct retaliation approach post-Operation Sindoor.
This arrest underlines the changing nature of threats to India—not just in the physical security arena but also at the cyber level. Cybersecurity agencies have to be on guard, particularly with youth, who are both tech literate and entering the world with access to very powerful tools to interfere with national infrastructure. Authorities must improve cyber awareness and counter-radicalization efforts among youth to prevent their exploitation by adversarial forces.
