A total of 157 deportees, out of which most are from Haryana, would be in the US military flight which is set to arrive in India. On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar Airport. Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann has questioned the central government’s choice of AmritSar as the landing site, accusing them of trying to defame the state. The development comes a day after second batch of 119 Indians were returned from the US on a military plane on late Saturday evening. Most of the deportees are in the age group of 18 to 30, with 65 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. In the second batch, 65 are from Punjab. If that’s the case, then why didn’t the first plane land in Ahmedabad?… They (referring to BJP-led central government) are trying todefame Punjab,” Mann said.
