Assam Chief Minister on Saturday said that the state government will no longer file legal cases against “illegal infiltrators” but will instead push them back at the border, The Assam Tribune reported.

“Infiltration is a ,” The Telegraph quoted the Bharatiya Janata Party leader as telling reporters after a state Cabinet meeting. “We have now decided that we will not go through the legal process.”

Sarma said that the approach earlier was to arrest such persons and bring them under the Indian legal system. They would be detained, produced before a court and held in jails, he added.

“We have now decided we will not bring them inside the country,” the BJP leader said. “We will push them back. Pushing them back is a new phenomenon.”

Calling such pushback a “new innovation”, Sarma added: “That is why you are hearing about more numbers. Otherwise, the influx remains the same – about 4,000 to 5,000 people enter every year – but with pushbacks, the numbers will drop.”

India shares a 4,096-km border with Bangladesh.

The BJP leader’s statement comes days after Bangladesh’s at least 123 persons whom it alleged India had pushed into the country without documents on Wednesday.

Among those detained were Rohingyas and Bengali-speaking persons. They were in the custody of the Border Guard Bangladesh and their identities were...