On 16th February, Sunday, the US aircraft carrying third batch of deported Indians landed at Amritsar airport at 10 pm. There are 112 people in the US Air Force's C-17 A Globemaster aircraft. Immigration officers are all set to interrogate the deported people at the airport. This process may take 3 to 4 hours to get over.
After biometric and police interrogation by the district administration, these Indians will be handed over to the respective police stations.
These deportees are being transported by a US military aircraft, marking a significant operation in the ongoing enforcement of US immigration policies.
Theses deportees include:
- Punjab: 31 deportees
- Haryana: 44 deportees
- Gujarat: 33 deportees
- Himachal Pradesh: 1 deportee
- Uttarakhand: 1 deportee
- Uttar Pradesh: 2 deportees
Previously, the US aircraft landed at Amritsar airport at 11:30 pm on Saturday night with a total of 116 Indians. All the men except women and children were made to sit in the plane with handcuffs on their hands and shackles on their feet. They were allowed to meet their families at the airport. After about 5 hours of verification, they were taken away in police vehicles.
Earlier, on 5th February, the first batch of deprted Indians had landed at Amritsar Airport. Among them, men and women, except children, were brought in handcuffs and shackles.
Hoshiarpur resident Daljit Singh, who was deported in this flight, confirmed that he was handcuffed and shackled. He said that their hands were tied and feet were shackled. He had reached America via the Donkey route.
Meanwhile, the deported cousins Sandeep and Pradeep have been detained by the Patiala police. They are being questioned in connection with a murder case registered in June 2023.
Those forcibly sent back on Saturday include 65 from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, 8 from Gujarat, 2 each from Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and 1 each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Most of them are in the age group of 18 to 30 years.
Regarding the previous batch, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had raised questions that when the maximum number of people (33 each) were from Haryana and Gujarat, why was the plane landed in Punjab instead of Ahmedabad or Ambala? However, the maximum number of Punjabis were returned in this batch.