A plane carrying 119 illegal immigrants from the United States will land at the Amritsar airport on Saturday, shortly. The plane is expected to land at the airport around 10 pm, official sources said.
As part of the promised crackdown on illegal migration, this will be the second such batch of Indians to be deported by the Donald Trump government.
Among the 119 deportees, 100 are from Punjab and Haryana. While 67 are from Punjab, 33 are from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each is from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Among them are four women and two minors, including a six-year-old girl, the sources said, adding that most of the deportees are in the age group of 18 to 30.
A third plane carrying 157 deportees is also expected to land on Sunday, they said.
On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar airport. Of the deportees, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, and 30 from Punjab.
Do not make Amritsar 'deport centre': Punjab CM
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann kept up his attack on the BJP Centre on Saturday over the landing of US planes with illegal Indian immigrants at the Amritsar airport and asked it not to make the holy city a "deport centre".
Talking to reporters at the Amritsar airport, the chief minister continued his attack on the Centre and said, "Do not make our holy city a deport centre."
He said Amritsar is known for the Golden Temple, the Durgiana Mandir, the Ram Tirath temple, Jallianwala Bagh, and the Gobindgarh Fort. There are many airbases in the country and planes carrying immigrants can land at any one of those, he said.
"Will they (the authorities concerned) allow the landing (of a plane carrying immigrants) in Vatican City, if they (immigrants) hail from there?" he asked.
Asked whether the second batch of deportees will be in shackles like those in the first batch, Mann said they do not have any information on whether the deportees are handcuffed and chained.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have taken up the issue with US President Donald Trump and told him that India will send its plane to bring these people back, he said.
Replying to a question on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader R P Singh's post on X that Amritsar is the closest international airport for planes entering India from the US, Mann wondered that in that case, why the Centre has not started flight services to the US from the city, which has been the demand of the state government.
Mann on Friday questioned the move to allow another plane carrying immigrants to land in Amritsar, as he accused the Centre of trying to defame Punjab as part of a conspiracy.
"The BJP-led Centre always discriminates against Punjab. It does not let go of any chance of defaming the state," the chief minister said while addressing reporters in Amritsar.
"As part of a conspiracy, it (the Centre) is trying to defame Punjab and Punjabis," he alleged.
Meanwhile, the BJP hit back at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader on Saturday, accusing him of playing politics over the issue.
After the first batch of illegal immigrants was sent back on February 5, most of the deportees hailing from Punjab said they wanted to migrate to the US for a better life for their families. However, their dreams were shattered when they were caught on the US border and sent back in shackles.
Many people from Punjab and other states, who entered the US through the "donkey route" -- an illegal and risky pathway used by migrants to enter America by spending lakhs of rupees -- are now facing deportation.
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