24 Bangladeshis apprehended by Assam Police, sent back: Himanta

Guwahati, Sep 28 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that 24 Bangladeshis have been apprehended by the police in Cachar district for illegally entering India, and sent back to the neighbouring country.

He asserted that Assam will continue identifying infiltrators and sending them back.

"Assam is always at the service of lost travellers who mistake our state for their own and will send them back promptly to their motherland Bangladesh," Sarma said in an X post on Saturday night.

Tweaking lines of a Hindi song, he wrote, "'Ghar laut ja pardesi, tera desh tujhe pukaare re' (Return home foreigner, your country is calling you)." "Adios lost travellers!" he added.

Nearly 500 alleged illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators have been pushed back from Assam to the neighbouring country in recent months.

Sarma claimed that the state government was committed to an infiltration-free Assam and each week, at least 35-40 people are being "pushed back".

The BSF also intensified its vigil along the 1,88-km India-Bangladesh border in the Northeast since disturbances began in the neighbouring country last year. PTI SSG SSG ACD