Fifteen illegal infiltrators have been identified and expelled from India in a coordinated sweep between Assam Police and the Border Security Force (BSF) — the latest enforcement action ordered by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as the state doubles down on border security. The operation, announced on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, signals Sarma's continued push to make illegal immigration a zero-tolerance issue in the state.

The joint operation and who was expelled

Sarma's post was unambiguous: 'Assam's security is non-negotiable.' In a coordinated action between @BSF_India and @assampolice, authorities identified and expelled 15 illegal infiltrators from Indian territory. The Chief Minister framed the action as both a security imperative and a matter of upholding the law — twin pillars his administration has leaned on since taking office in 2021.

The BSF, which guards India's land borders including the long and porous frontier with Bangladesh, has been an indispensable partner in Assam's anti-infiltration drives. State police handle the intelligence and identification side; the central paramilitary executes the border pushback. That division of labour is what makes these joint operations possible at scale.

Decades of politics, one persistent fault-line

Illegal immigration into Assam is not a new crisis — it is a four-decade-old wound that has shaped the state's politics more than almost any other issue. The Assam Accord of 1985 attempted to draw a clean line, fixing 24 March 1971 as the cut-off date for detecting and deporting foreigners who entered after Bangladesh's creation. The accord gave the movement for Assamese identity its legislative anchor but never fully resolved the question of who belonged and who did not.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC), completed in 2019, was the most ambitious attempt to settle that question. It left behind a deeply contested list and a machinery — the Foreigners Tribunals — that continues to adjudicate individual cases. For Sarma and the BJP, joint operations like Wednesday's are both a law-enforcement necessity and a political statement: the party came to power in Assam partly on the promise that it would act where others hesitated.

Pattern of intensified BSF-Assam Police coordination

Since the BJP first came to power in Assam in 2016, joint detection-and-deportation operations with the BSF have become more frequent and more publicly announced — a deliberate contrast to the perceived inaction of earlier governments. Sarma, who took over as Chief Minister in May 2021, has personally amplified each major operation on social media, using them to reinforce his administration's core messaging on security and sovereignty.

Wednesday's expulsion of 15 infiltrators fits that established rhythm. The number may appear modest, but the political and symbolic weight Sarma attaches to every such action is anything but. In a state where demographic anxieties run deep and border villages live with the daily reality of illegal crossings, each announced expulsion carries a message well beyond its immediate headcount.

The road for Assam's border enforcement machinery now runs through the Foreigners Tribunals, any potential legislative updates, and the state's ability to keep BSF coordination tight — because if Wednesday's operation proved anything, it is that Sarma intends to keep the pressure exactly where it is.