NEW DELHI — Officials from the NIA, RAW, and state police forces confirmed Wednesday that a massive multi-agency operation to secure the nation's institutions was initiated following a digital transaction equivalent to the price of a small snack.

The nationwide mobilization, which triggered the evacuation of 40 schools across Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, and Vadodara in February 2026, and prompted extensive searches of several district courts, was launched in response to compromised email IDs purchased for between $1 and $5. Authorities noted the perpetrators maximized their return on investment by sending nearly 100 hoax messages referencing Lashkar-e-Taiba, Khalistan, and Dravidian politics to ensure immediate public panic protocols were activated.

"We are dealing with a highly sophisticated threat environment, in that anyone with five dollars can temporarily shut down the Punjab and Haryana High Court," said a senior official, reviewing a file of hoaxes sent via encrypted Proton Mail. "Our rapid-response system functioned exactly as designed, meaning we successfully evacuated tens of thousands of people every time a one-dollar email was dispatched."

The official added that while coordinating international legal intervention for encrypted services remains incredibly complex, law enforcement has successfully mitigated the threat by arresting the individual selling the compromised IDs, forcing future perpetrators to spend up to six dollars on the open market.