Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday claimed that security forces apprehended 19 undocumented migrants in Assam and sent them back to Bangladesh.

“In a full doomsday moment, Assam Police & BSF [Border Security Force] assembled and snapped,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said on social media. “Nineteen illegals from Nagaon and Karbi Anglong disappeared from India, reappeared in their hell hole.”

He added: “Message is crystal clear: Illegal stay in Assam? Endgame guaranteed.”

Sarma has repeatedly claimed that the state government was committed to ensuring an “infiltration-free” Assam, claiming that about 35 to 40 “illegal” immigrants were being “pushed back” every week, PTI reported.

The development on Sunday came days after the administration in Nagaon ordered 15 declared foreigners to leave the state within 24 hours on December 17, claiming that their presence was “detrimental to the interest of the general public” and “internal security of the state”.

The orders were issued by District Commissioner Devasish Sharma under the 1950 Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act.

The Act grants power to district commissioners and senior superintendents of police to expel “illegal migrants” from the state by bypassing the foreigners tribunals.

In November, similar orders were issued against five persons in the state’s Sonitpur district.

In September, the Assam Cabinet approved the framing of a standard operating procedure under the Act. Earlier, cases pertaining to undocumented migrants were handled by foreigners tribunals.

Sarma had said at the time that the standard operating procedure to use the 1950 Act had been approved, which would, to a large extent, “nullify” the role of the foreigners tribunals.

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

As per the standard operating procedure, if a district commissioner receives information from the police or other sources that a person is suspected to be an “illegal immigrant”, the official will direct the person to produce evidence of his citizenship within 10 days, Sarma had at the time.

If the district commissioner finds that the evidence submitted is not satisfactory, he can pass an expulsion order by invoking the 1950 Act, ordering the removal of the undocumented immigrant from Assam “by giving 24 hours’ time and by the route so specified”.

In June, Sarma informed the Assembly that the state government was planning to invoke the 1950 law to “push back” more suspected foreigners.

The chief minister had claimed that the expulsion of declared foreigners was justified in the legal framework provided by the Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act.