Second batch of US deportees lands today, 67 of 119 from Punjab

A second special flight carrying 119 deportees from the US — including 67 Punjabis —will land at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport on Saturday night, according to senior police officers.

The flight is expected to land at the airport around 10 pm, official sources said.

A third plane carrying 157 deportees is also expected to land on February 16, they said. On February 5, a US military plane with 104 deportees aboard had landed at Amritsar.

The police officer, however, did not confirm whether a US aircraft would bring the deportees or the Indian government had arranged a flight for the purpose.

A source said apart from 67 Punjabis, the Saturday flight would bring back 33 persons belonging to Haryana. Eight of the deportees are residents of Gujarat, three of Uttar Pradesh, and two each of Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

One each belongs to Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

A police officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the authorities were closely monitoring the situation while proper security arrangements had been put in place at the airport.

Immigration officials, police personnel and representatives from the Ministry of External Affairs will be present at the airport.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann slammed the Centre for choosing the Amritsar airport for the landing of the flights, saying it was a “deliberate attempt to defame the state” by giving the impression that all deportees belonged to Punjab.

Mann told reporters in Amritsar that he had lodged a protest with the Ministry of External Affairs over it but the response was still awaited. The CM said illegal immigration was a national problem.

“Despite Punjab being the food bowl of the nation” and its sacrifices in the freedom struggle of the country, the BJP-led Centre “had started a tirade to defame the state globally”, he said.

The Chief Minister also questioned the criteria for choosing the Amritsar airport for the flights.

The CM said if the Saturday flight was being landed in Amritsar as a majority of deportees were from Punjab, then why the February 5 flight did not land in Gujarat, which had maximum 33 deportees on board.

“It appears that if the Centre wants to tag the holy city (Amritsar) as a deportation centre. Why don’t these planes land in New Delhi, Haryana or Gujarat when the deportees are natives of multiple states? It is clear that the BJP is targeting Punjab in a deliberate attempt to defame Punjabis,” he said.