3 min readAmritsarFeb 17, 2025 11:10 AM IST
First published on: Feb 16, 2025 at 02:59 PM IST
A Punjab cabinet minister and some deportees who landed from the United States in Amritsar on Saturday night have claimed that some of the young men on board the flight didn’t have their turbans, and the Punjab administration had to make last-minute arrangements at the airport.
The second batch of 116 devotees arrived at the Sri Ramdas International Airport a little before midnight yesterday.
Yashpal Singh from Patti, who claimed to have spent Rs 44 lakh to take the “dunkey route” to the US, said, “We were not wearing turbans when we landed at the airport. They had removed our turbans (before the flight). SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee) provided us with a siropa, but those were not long enough as these are used to honour someone and not to tie on the head. So I borrowed a cap to cover my head.”
Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who remained at the airport until early Sunday morning, said, “Some youth on the first flight didn’t have their turbans either. We raised this issue after the first flight, and we will again. But it is sad that despite so much hue and cry, nothing has changed. The third flight will likely be the same – with the youth in shackles and without turbans.”
An SGPC official said, “We have a small camp office at the airport where we keep siropas in stock to welcome dignitaries. We provided 15 siropas from our stock to the deportees.”
Officials said that most of the deportees on this flight were men, and they were all handcuffed and shackled.
Deportees also said that they were made to sit on a cold floor at the airport while waiting for immigration clearance.
Unlike the first flight, when only a few people had come to receive the deportees, several parents and relatives turned up outside the airport this time. Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann also visited the airport on Saturday evening, saying he had come to receive the deportees. But he left around 5:30 pm, hours before the aircraft landed at 11:30 pm.
Punjab Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal also left after taking a photo with a group of deportees at the aviation club around 3 am on Sunday.
Parents and relatives said there was no system to inform them of when the deportees would be released, so they shuffled between the airport’s arrival and cargo gates for about 12 hours.
Some relief came from the SGPC, which provided food and tea to relatives waiting outside the airport through the night.
Relatives became even more frustrated early Sunday morning when they realised that the deportees would not be handed over to them and the police would drop them off at their respective homes.
A deportee taken by the Punjab police outside Amritsar airport. (Express Photo by Rana Simranjeet) 
Share
