Second US military aircraft carrying 119 illegal immigrants from India to land at Amritsar airport as Punjab cries foul
Sixty-seven of the deportees are from Punjab, 33 are from Haryana, and eight are from Gujarat. Uttar Pradesh is home to three of the deportees, while Goa, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan account for two each, and Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have one resident each on the deportation flight.
A US military aircraft that took off from the US on Friday carrying 119 deported illegal immigrants from India is expected to land at the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport, Amritsar, on Saturday. The second deportation flight is heading to India less than 48 hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump, where illegal immigration was one of the topics the two leaders discussed.
CREDIT: IANS
Most deportees on second flight are from Punjab
While there is no official word on the whereabouts of the deportees, according to reports, the majority of those sent back on the second flight are from Punjab.
Sixty-seven of the deportees are from Punjab, 33 are from Haryana, and eight are from Gujarat. Uttar Pradesh is home to three of the deportees, while Goa, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan account for two each, and Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have one resident each on the deportation flight.
Will the deportees be shackled
It is also unclear if the deportees on the second flight will also be shackled like the 104 illegal immigrants who were sent back to India on the first deportation flight last week.
CREDIT: USBP
The inhumane treatment of the deportees had caused massive outrage in India, with the opposition parties claiming that it was an insult to the country.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, while addressing the issue in Parliament, had said that the ICE was only following the protocol.
Punjab alleges conspiracy
Meanwhile, the deportation flights have caused another political controversy in Punjab, with even the state Chief Minister questioning the motive behind the flight landing in Amritsar.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday alleged that the Centre was trying to defame Punjab as part of a conspiracy. He said deportation is a national problem, but it is being made to appear that only Punjabis migrate illegally.
CREDIT: BCCL
"It is a deliberate attempt so that it appears that only Punjabis migrate illegally," Mann said.
He also pointed out that on the first deportation flight, the majority of the deportees were from PM Modi's home state Gujarat and BJP-ruled Haryana, but the US military aircraft carrying them landed in Punjab instead of either of the states or in national capital New Delhi.
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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