Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Wednesday that state police have pushed back 128 Bangladeshis who had illegally entered the state since August, his statement coming a day after the state government extended the contentious AFSPA in four districts for six more months citing “recent disturbances” in neighbouring Bangladesh.

In a post on X, Sarma said, “128 Bangladeshis pushed back in last 2 months. Maintaining strict vigil along the Indo-Bangla border, @assampolice has pushed back 128 infiltrators across the border. The following persons have been apprehended in the wee hours.” Those pushed back on Wednesday were identified as Babul Hussain and Sakib Mia, Sarma said.

The Assam chief minister has been regularly posting about the apprehension of Bangladeshis entering without valid papers and their arrest or pushback since the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5 following a widespread student protest which subsequently turned violent.

The political turmoil with Bangladesh, which shares a 263 km border with India in Assam, has seen security along the international border tightened in bordering states such as Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura to check the influx of Bangladesh nationals which could pose a possible threat to the country’s internal security in the long run.

On Tuesday, the Assam government issued a notification extending the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act or AFSPA in the four districts — Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Charaideo and Sivasagar — for another six months from October 1 even though the overall security scenario in the state has “significantly improved during the last few years and particularly during last three years”.

The AFSPA gives security forces operating in areas declared as disturbed under the central Act unbridled powers to search, arrest and shoot.