Deportees allowed to go 7 hours after plane landed in Amritsar

Around seven hours after a US military plane carrying 112 deportees landed at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport on Sunday night, they were taken out in security-escorted buses from two different gates at the airport in the wee hours of Monday.

They were not allowed to speak to media. Neither their families were permitted to receive them.

The deportees who arrived at 10.03 pm were allowed to move out in small batches only after 4.30 am. Then it took half an hour for the authorities to take them out of the airport.Among the deportees, 31 were from Punjab, 44 from Haryana and one from Himachal Pradesh.

Arrangements were made for the transportation of deportees to their destination by the respective states, the officials said.

A United States plane carrying a third batch of 112 Indians, who were deported from America for illegally residing in the country, landed in Amritsar on Sunday night.

7 A US Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft touched down at Amritsar International Airport around 10 pm. This is the third such arrival in the last 10 days as a part of the US President Donald Trump-led administration's crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Out of the 112 deportees, 44 are from Haryana, 33 from Gujarat, 31 from Punjab, two from Uttar Pradesh, and one each from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

Families of some of the illegal immigrants have arrived at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in Amritsar to receive them.

After completing all formalities, including immigration, verification, and background checks, the deportees will be permitted to return home. Authorities have also arranged transportation to their respective destinations.

On late Saturday night, the second US military aircraft carrying 116 illegal Indian immigrants landed at Amritsar airport, with the men among the deportees claiming they were in shackles throughout the flight and Sikh youths were allegedly without turbans.

Of these 116 deportees, 65 were 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.

"Our legs were chained and hands cuffed throughout the journey. There were three women and three children on board who were not cuffed. The shackles were removed before the aircraft landed in Amritsar," one of the deportees said.

Meanwhile, two deportees belonging to Rajpura in Punjab's Patiala district were arrested soon after they landed in Amritsar in connection with a murder case. Sandeep Singh alias Sunny and Pradeep Singh were accused in a murder case registered in 2023.

A US flight carrying 104 Indian deportees, including 13 children, landed in Amritsar on February 5 — the first such repatriation. Deportees reported being unshackled only after arrival.

After coming out of Amritsar airport at the time, one of those onboard the first flight, Jaspal Singh from Punjab's Gurdaspur, told PTI, "We thought we were being taken to another camp. Then a police officer told us that we were being taken to India. We were handcuffed, and our legs were chained. These were opened at Amritsar airport".

Notably, the US has deported a total of 332 illegal Indian immigrants on all three flights so far.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has been strongly criticising the central government over the landings of US planes carrying deportees at Amritsar airport. Expressing his discontent, he stated, "Do not turn our holy city into a deportation hub".