Plane carrying second batch of 116 deportees from US lands in Amritsar

A plane carrying 116 illegal Indian immigrants from the US landed at the Amritsar International Airport late on Saturday night official sources saidThis is the second such batch of Indians to be deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of its promised crackdown on illegal immigrants The flight landed at the airport around 1130 pm as against the expected time of 10 pm they saidIt was not immediately clear whether the deportees were in shackles or notAfter the first batch of illegal immigrants was sent back on February 5 most of the deportees hailing from Punjab had 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 shacklesEarlier there were reports that the plane would carry 119 immigrants but now as per an updated list of passengers the number of deportees in the second batch was 116 they addedAmong the deportees 65 are from Punjab 33 from Haryana eight from Gujarat two each from Uttar Pradesh Goa Maharashtra and Rajasthan and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir Most of the deportees are in the age group of 18 to 30 as per the sourcesThe families of some of the deportees reached the airport to receive themThird plane expected to land in India todayA third plane carrying 157 deportees is also expected to land on February 16 they saidOn February 5 a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar airport Of them 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat and 30 from PunjabSpeaking earlier in the day the family members of a second batch of illegal Indian immigrants deported from the US were in a state of shock with many of them saying that they raised money by pledging farm land and cattle to send them abroad for a bright futureThe family of Daljit Singh a resident of Kurala Kalan village in the Tanda area of Hoshiarpur district said a travel agent had duped themKamalpreet Kaur the wife of Daljit alleged that her husband was deceived by the travel agent who promised him a direct flight to the US but instead took him via the donkey route an illegal and risky pathway used by migrants to enter the USMany people from Punjab and other states who tried to enter 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 deportationPunjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann earlier kept up his attack on the Centre over the landing of US planes carrying illegal Indian immigrants at Amritsar airport and asked it not to make the holy city a deport centrePunjab CM says food will be made available to deporteesMann visited the international airport in Amritsar and said his government has made arrangements to take the Punjab residents from among the second batch of deportees to their hometownsOur vehicles are ready to take them to their places he said earlier in the dayThe chief minister said his administration has also offered to take the deportees from Haryana to their destinationsHowever the Haryana government has already made arrangements for taking the deportees hailing from the state to their respective placesThe deportees from the other states will travel to Delhi from Amritsar on a plane on Sunday morning and will then be taken to their respective places Mann saidArrangements for food has been made for all the deportees he addedCentre trying to defame PunjabEarlier during the day while 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 FortThere are many airbases in the country and planes carrying immigrants can land at any one of those he saidWill they the authorities concerned allow the landing of a plane carrying immigrants in Vatican City if they immigrants hail from there he askedReplying to a question on BJP leader R P Singhs 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 governmentMann 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 conspiracyCommenting on the matter BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh accused Mann of playing politics over deporteesCongress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said the AAP government in Punjab has failed to curb human traffickingHe asked Mann how many travel agents were booked for human trafficking in the last three yearsA fourmember Special Investigation Team SIT headed by Additional Director General of Police ADGP NRI Affairs Praveen Sinha has recently been formed by Punjab Director General of Police DGP Gaurav Yadav to probe complaints regarding the involvement of fraudulent travel agents in deceptive immigration practicesThe DGP on Saturday reiterated Punjab Polices commitment to dismantling these criminal networks and protecting vulnerable individuals from exploitationHe requested the public to come forward with any information that could assist in apprehending culprits against whom cases have been registeredAdditionally the DGP advised citizens to only approach licensed agents for immigration services and verify their credentials thoroughly to avoid falling prey to scamsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever