The Assam government has “pushed back” 88 alleged “illegal infiltrators” to Bangladesh from Cachar district in one month, said Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday.

Sarma claimed that among persons forced into Bangladesh, 59 are nationals of the country and 29 are Rohingya refugees, who were tracked and identified “through special operations”.

Cachar shares a 32-km-long border with Bangladesh.

“For far too long have illegal infiltrators gone scot free,” the Assam chief minister claimed in a social media post. “We are tolerating it no more.”

The Assam government has been forcing people over the border into Bangladesh since May. Many of those “pushed” into the country claim they are Indian citizens.

On Sunday, the state police detained 15 persons, including women and children, in Cachar. They were suspected to be from Bangladesh and have since been housed at a temporary detention facility in Silchar, reported India Today NE.

Several of the detainees had been living in Gujarat’s Surat but came to Assam in a bid to cross back to Bangladesh amid a heightened crackdown on undocumented migrants, the media outlet quoted an unidentified police officer as saying.

On June 9, Sarma said that more than 330 persons who were declared to be foreigners by the state’s Foreigners Tribunals have been “pushed” back into Bangladesh.

The Foreigners Tribunals in the state are quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship. They have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and declaring people foreigners on the basis of minor spelling mistakes, a lack of documents or lapses in memory.

On May 20, Sarma said that the state was “duty-bound to protect the interests" of Assam and “expel all illegal immigrants from the state through any means and as per directions of [the] Supreme Court”.

The chief minister appeared to be referring to the court’s February 4 ruling that the state must deport persons who had been declared foreign nationals.

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