To battle the influx, the state government had armed itself with a special law: Prevention of Infiltration from Pakistan (PIP) Act of 1964. The PIP had been predated by the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act of 1950 which distinguished between Hindus and Muslims. The latter were illegal aliens, the former were refugees. This was surely a formula that would have gladdened the heart of the Bharatiya Janata Party faithful had they been around at the time! This blatantly discriminatory law was repealed in 1957 although, on the sly, the Government of India passed an administrative order which enable Hindus from East Pakistan who had been resident in India for more than six months to be granted citizenship by a district magistrate.4 This too was later withdrawn.

The PIP raised a special border police force of 1,914 men under the leadership of a Deputy Inspector General of Police. A total of 159 watch posts (towers) were built and 15 patrol posts. Another six passport checkpoints were also set up.

The 1965 war between India and Pakistan intervened as the project was coming into place. That conflict led to the raising of another border patrol force, the Border Security Force (BSF), which has since taken responsibility for the monitoring and security of India’s frontiers with its neighbours. The Assam Border Police’s work was handed over to the new paramilitary organization and the state forces were relocated inside Assam. The mandate was similar yet different: to identify and deport illegal migrants who had escaped the eye of the troops at the border and smuggled themselves into the countryside.

Later, as public interest in the situation diminished and political pressure decreased, they melted away—in the darkness or the shelter of anonymity in the Muslim-dominated riverine areas of Assam, neighbouring East Pakistan.

In 1987, the strength of the Border Police went up with support from the Government of India and the state Government: a total of over 2,000 men and officers were inducted, increasing its numbers to more than 4,000. But the effectiveness of this group as well as the BSF is open to question, as we will see.

It is worth examining here why the high-profile campaign launched by Chaliha, Gill and others collapsed so rapidly. Several reasons have been cited; but the core issue was political.

A furious revolt had erupted inside the Congress Party as a result of the anti-immigrant campaign. At the time, Chaliha was among the most respected political leaders of the country. He had battled hard to prevent the Congress split in 1969 and his integrity and compassion had won him the respect of even the Naga rebels fighting against Assam and India. For a brief time, he was part of the three-man peace mission to Nagaland.