Bharatiya Janata Party website hacked; 'be patient,' says party

No hacker group has come forward to claim responsibility for the cyber attack yet.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) website was allegedly hacked on Tuesday. Several users took to social media to report it and shared screenshots of the same. No hacker group has come forward to claim responsibility for the cyber attack. 

BJP IT cell spokesperson asked users to "be patient".

“We’ll be back soon! Sorry for the inconvenience but we’re performing some maintenance at the moment. we’ll be back online shortly,” said a message from the website administrator. Initially, the website reported Error 522 message.

In the last few months, several Indian government websites were hacked by Pakistan-based hackers. 

The hacking of the BJP website comes during a tense standoff between India and Pakistan following the suicide attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy on February 14 in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama by a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist in which 40 soldiers were killed.

India early on February 26 launched a retaliatory pre-emptive strike against deep inside Pakistan when Indian Air Force (IAF) Mirage-2000 jets rained bombs on Jaish terror camps in Balakot. The next day Pakistani Air Force tried to target Indian military installations in Jammu and Kashmir which was thwarted by IAF fighters.

In the ensuing dogfight one IAF MiG-21 Bison shot down a PAF F-16. But the MiG-21 Bison too was lost in the skirmish and the pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman ejected and was captured by the Pakistani Army.

Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was finally released by Pakistan on March 1 after over 60 hours in Pakistani captivity.

The official website of BJP's Chhattisgarh unit was allegedly defaced by Pakistan hackers on February 21. The hackers claimed that they belong to Pakistan.  A message posted on the website read, "We are Pakistan Cyber Attackers." The hackers threatened of a serial blast and attached photographs of Pakistan flag and their Army on the hacked website.