India has reportedly pushed-back a whopping 172 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants back to their home country between Saturday night (24th May) and Sunday morning (25th May) as part of its ongoing crackdown on infiltrators (Operation Push-back).
The deportations were carried out through the borders located in Bangladesh’s Sylhet, Meherpur and Moulvibazar.
India pushed back a total of 19 Bangladeshi infiltrators in Meherpur on Sunday morning. They were then taken by the Border Guard Bangladesh to a temporary shelter.
The Bangladeshi citizens who were living illegally in India were later taken into custody by the police. They infiltrated Indian territory at various points in time and resided in the State of Haryana.
After being intercepted, these 19 infiltrators were brought to Berhampore in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal and then pushed back to the Bangladeshi side.
A total of 153 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were pushed-back through the borders in Sylhet (32) and Moulvibazar (121) by BSF between Saturday night (24th May) and Sunday morning (25th May).
They are natives of Kurigram in Bangladesh and have been working in India for several years.
BGB commanding officer Lt Col Mehedi Hasan lamented, “After Saturday’s push in through the Kanaighat border, we increased our vigilance in the border. However, the BSF managed to push in 153 people through five points in the border between 2:00am to 8:30am.”
He claimed, “The BSF switched off the security lights they installed in their part of the border and pushed in these people. After we detained them, we confirmed their nationalities as Bangladeshi and, considering the humanitarian ground, detained and later handed them to the police.
According to BGB, the illegal immigrants were working at different stone quarries and brick fields in India.
Previously, the BSF pushed back 16 Bangladeshi infiltrators back to their home country on 14th May this year.
BGB has stated that India has similarly pushed back 664 Bangladeshi infilitrators through borders in 11 districts of Bangladesh.
These districts include Khagrachhari, Kurigram, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, Cumilla, Feni, and Jhenidah.
In total 742 Bangladeshi immigrants have been deported under ‘Operation Push-back’ so far.
Operation Push-back: A success story
For decades, India has followed established protocols to deport Bangladeshi infilitrators and Rohingyas to their home country.
The process has been slow (pending trial in courts), cumbersome (because Bangladesh government and Bangladesh Border Guard often refuse to acknowledge their own citizens) and has failed to attain success.
The situation has been exacerbated due to continued illegal immigration through the porous India-Bangladesh border with the help of agents and brokers but not enough deportations year-on-year.
For the unversed, there are more than 2 crore Bangladeshis living illegally in India (2016 data).
Following the undemocratic ouster of Sheikh Hasina and the hostile attitude of the Yunus-led interim government, the deportation protocol has been rendered useless by Bangladesh.
Forced by circumstances, the Indian government has now resorted to what is being unofficially referred to as ‘Operation Push-back.’
The Indian government has devised a new strategy to get rid of Bangladeshi infiltrators and Rohingyas who are caught red-handed at the Eastern border as well as living in India illegally for several years.
Instead of going through the hassle of handing them over to the police, registering a FIR, producing them before the court, continuing trials for years and then sending them back through established protocols, the Indian security forces are now increasingly pushing-back the infiltrators to the other side almost instantenously.
‘Operation Push-back’ has been in motion since April 2025. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was quoted as saying –
“Infiltration is a big issue. We have now decided we will not go through the legal process. Earlier, decision was to arrest a person and then bring him to the Indian legal system… Earlier also we used to arrest 1,000-1,500 foreigners…they must be sent to jail and then they are produced before a court of law. Now, we have decided that we will not bring them inside the country, we will push them. This pushing back is a new phenomenon. Every year, 5,000 people enter the country and because of pushback this number will become minimise now.”
In cases where Bangladeshis are nabbed from different cities of India (far from the Eastern borders), they are first flown to either Tripura, Assam or West Bengal and then pushed over to Bangladeshi side.
Several States in India including Rajasthan, Tripura and Odisha have stepped up the process of identification of illegal immigrants.
The impact of crackdown on infilitrators have been successful so much so that some Bangladeshis are now ‘voluntarily returning‘ to their home country.
The interim government of Bangladesh, led by ‘chief advisor’ Muhammad Yunus has been rattled by India’s paradigm shift in strategy at dealing with infiltrators.
On 8th May, his Foreign Minister wrote to India to raise concerns over ‘people being pushed into the country and urged New Delhi to adhere to established repatriation mechanisms.’
“For the sake of peace and stability along the Bangladesh–India border, such push-ins are unacceptable and should be avoided,” it claimed.
In the meantime, the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has set a 30-day deadline for verification of the credentials of illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas, following which they would deported (mostly through Operation Push-back).
