As the auspicious Devi Paksha period began on Saturday, 10 October 2026, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced a sharp crackdown — Assam Police, acting on specific intelligence, dismantled an infiltration network and arrested 12 illegal migrants, unearthing what he described as the complete route and procedure of illegal entry into the state.

The bust: what Assam Police uncovered

According to CM Sarma, the operation was intelligence-driven, not incidental. Police did not merely intercept individuals — they mapped the entire pipeline: the entry corridors, the logistics, and the procedural chain that moves people across Assam's borders without authorisation. The arrest of 12 individuals is presented as the visible tip; the network itself is the real target.

Sarma's post made clear that the crackdown would not stop at those caught crossing. 'We will hunt down their hosts here and treat them with the right provisions of Indian law,' he wrote — a direct warning aimed at local facilitators and shelter providers operating inside Assam.

The 'hosts' warning: local facilitators in the crosshairs

The distinction Sarma draws is deliberate and legally significant. Under Indian law, facilitating illegal entry or providing shelter to undocumented migrants can attract provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport Entry into India Act, 1920, among other statutes. By signalling that 'hosts' — those who house or enable illegal migrants within Assam — will face prosecution, the government is expanding the scope of accountability beyond the migrants themselves.

This two-pronged approach — intercept at the border, prosecute the support network within — reflects a pattern of enforcement that Assam's administration has pursued with increasing intensity over recent years, particularly in districts along the Bangladesh border.

Devi Paksha framing and the demographic argument

Sarma's choice to frame the operation within the religious calendar of Devi Paksha — the fortnight leading up to Durga Puja, considered sacred across Assam and Bengal — is pointed. He invoked the imagery of 'slaying demonic forces' threatening to 'alter Assam's demography,' language that places the enforcement action within a long-running political and cultural narrative about illegal immigration changing the ethnic and religious composition of the state.

Assam's demographic anxieties have deep historical roots, stretching from the Assam Agitation of 1979–1985 through the Assam Accord and the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC) process. The Chief Minister's framing keeps that anxiety politically alive while anchoring it to a concrete law-enforcement action.

With the festive season underway and border surveillance at a declared high, Assam's administration has served notice that the hunt for infiltration networks — and the people who sustain them from within — is far from over.