New Delhi:

A plane carrying 119 Indians arrived from the United States at Punjab’s Amritsar airport on Saturday, the second such arrival in a span of 10 days, as part of the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown and decision to deport illegal immigrants.

The first round of deportation had taken place on February 5, when a US military plane transported 104 Indians to Amritsar. A third plane with 157 deportees is expected to land in India on Sunday. 

The C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US Air Force landed at the Amritsar International Airport close to 11:40 pm on Saturday. 

Of the total deportees, 67 are from Punjab, 33 are from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. The families of some of them reached the airport to receive them.

Earlier, those deported were from Haryana (33), Gujarat (33), Punjab (30), Maharashtra (3) Uttar Pradesh (3), and Chandigarh (2). They were sent back on the same military aircraft that took off from San Antonio, Texas.

The deportees were shackled and restrained throughout the flight, only to be freed upon arrival in India – a move that triggered a political storm in India, and led to an uproar in both Houses of Parliament during the then ongoing Budget session.

Amid criticism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the Centre is engaging with the US to ensure the deportees are not mistreated. He also said the US’ deportation of illegal migrants is not a new development and has been going on for years. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in the US earlier this week, said India will take back any of its citizens living illegally in the US. He, however, emphasised that efforts need to be made to end human trafficking. 

“Our bigger fight is against that entire ecosystem, and we are confident that President Trump will fully cooperate with India in finishing this ecosystem,” he said. 

In its defense, the US Embassy in India said “enforcing our nation’s immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States”. “It is the policy of the United States to faithfully execute the immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens,” an embassy spokesperson said.

India is the third source of undocumented immigrants in the US after Mexico and El Salvador.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann visited the Amritsar airport earlier in the day and said his government has made arrangements to take the residents of Punjab from among the second batch of deportees to their hometowns.

The deportees who hail from other states will head to Delhi from Amritsar in a flight on Sunday morning and then they will be taken to their respective places, he said.

Mr Mann also attacked the Centre over the landing of the planes at the Amritsar airport and asked it not to make the holy city a “deport centre”.

Most of the deportees belonging to Punjab earlier said they wanted to migrate to the US for a better life for their families. However, their dreams were shattered when they were caught on the US border and sent back in shackles.

Amritsar:

A blast occurred at a police station in Punjab’s Amritsar in the early hours of Tuesday, triggering panic in the area. Officials said no one was injured in the “attack”.

The incident comes a fortnight after a hand grenade was lobbed at a police post in Nawanshahr.

An explosion was heard at the Islamabad police station around 3.15 am, according to locals.

Initially, the Amritsar Police claimed that no blast occurred on the police station premises. However, in an official statement in the evening, the Punjab Police said “in the wake of the attack” on the Islamabad police station, Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav visited the city and ordered strict action against the perpetrators.

Yadav visited Amritsar a few hours after the incident was reported, according to the statement.

Chairing a high-level meeting here, the DGP emphasised the need for officers to use both technical and human intelligence to detect and apprehend those responsible for the “attack”.

“All the previous cases of attacks on police establishments, including the IED implant at the Ajnala police station and the hand grenade attack at police post Asron, in Nawanshahr, have been solved successfully and those responsible have been arrested,” he said.

Yadav asked the officers to identify common trends and patterns and conduct investigations in a scientific manner, utilising all technical and forensic tools for the detection of crimes to ensure the convictions of accused persons.

The meeting was attended by Commissioner of Police (CP) Amritsar Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Ferozepur Range, Ranjit Singh Dhillon, DIG Border Range Satinder Singh and SSP, Amritsar Rural, Charanjit Singh.

Earlier in the day, Amritsar Police Commissioner Bhullar denied reports of the blast.

He said that a policeman posted on sentry duty heard the sound around 3:15 am. “He immediately went out but found nothing. He definitely heard the sound. All police officers immediately reached the spot,” Bhullar said.

Pawan Kumar (55), who lives near the police station, said, “A loud noise was heard around 3.15 am which created panic in the area. Residents rushed outside to see what happened.” Meanwhile, DGP Yadav also reviewed the law-and-order situation in the border districts and took stock of progress achieved in previous cases of attacks on police establishments.

In a separate meeting, the DGP addressed all superintendents of police, deputy superintendents of police and station house officers of border districts, including the Commissionerate Police Amritsar, Amritsar Rural, Batala and Tarn Taran, to brief them about the top priorities of the Punjab Police.

He directed the officers to intensify the fight against terrorism, organised crime, drug trafficking and street crimes. He also asked them to tackle such crimes professionally and ensure the prompt registration of FIRs in such cases.

The DGP also encouraged police officers to act promptly on tips received via the newly launched Safe Punjab Anti-Drug Helpline ‘9779100200’. This helpline allows citizens to report drug traffickers anonymously.

Later, DGP Yadav also visited Jalandhar and held a similar meeting with senior officers, including Jalandhar CP Swapan Sharma, Jalandhar Range DIG Naveen Singla, Jalandhar Rural SSP Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh, Hoshiarpur SSP Surendra Lamba, Kapurthala SSP Gaurav Toora and other gazetted officers and SHOs of the Jalandhar Commissionerate and Jalandhar Range to review the law-and-order situation.

The DGP also participated in a brainstorming session organised for the officers in which crime solutions adopted by various police stations were discussed.

During the session, the model adopted by the Aur police station in district SBS Nagar to combat drug trafficking at the point of sale by utilising public cooperation was discussed.

The DGP applauded the various crime solution techniques being used by different districts to arrest persons involved in heinous offences.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)