Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday reiterated his condemnation of the Centre’s handling of Washington’s deportation of undocumented Indians, hours before a second flight from the US landed in Amritsar with Indiandeportees.

“What is the criterion for choosing Amritsar? The Centre and the ministry of external affairs should tell me,” Mann told reporters before meeting airport officials to discuss the arrangements for the deportees.

“Why did you choose Amritsar and not the national capital? You did this to defame Punjab and Punjabis.”

India’s Opposition has slammed the government for allowing a US military aircraft to bring back undocumented Indians, their hands and feet shackled, on February 5.

On that flight, which too landed in Amritsar, a higher number of deportees were from Gujarat and Haryana than Punjab, which had prompted Mann to question the decision to land that aircraft in Punjab.

“Sheikh Hasina landed in Hindon, Ghaziabad. Why can’t these aircraft land in Hindon? They should land in the national capital. We will bring our people from there,” the Aam Aadmi Party chief minister had told reporters on Friday.

“Amritsar is being chosen deliberately to portray that only Punjabis are illegal migrants. Why is Ahmedabad or Ambala (Haryana) not chosen? (The) BJP always conspires to defame Punjab. They don’t let international flights operate from Amritsar, claiming that it is not suitable for it, so why are flights coming in from the US now?”

On Saturday, Mann said the deportees who hail from Punjab and Haryana would be sent home by road. Arrangements for food and lodging have been made for the others, who have a connecting flight to Delhi in the morning.

A higher number of deportees on this flight are believed to be from Punjab.

“Amritsar is a pilgrim city…. Don’t make it a deportation centre. There are several military airbases where this plane can land,” Mann said.

“We should have sent our own aircraft like other countries have done. PM (Narendra) Modi should have raised the matter with (US President) Trump.”

Both the Opposition Congress in Punjab and the BJP targeted Mann.

Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa of the Congress said: “Can CM Bhagwant Mann, who also holds the home portfolio, let Punjabis know how many travel agents have been booked under the same law in the last three years?...

“Mann says he is going to receive the 119 deportees arriving today in Amritsar. In the absence of a rehabilitation programme and compensation, this is nothing more than a publicity stunt.”

BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh said: “Rather than giving employment, the industry, farming and service sectors are moving in reverse gear under the AAPda party…. The time he (Mann) spent in pleasing his political bosses, had he devoted the same to breaking this nexus of fraudulent agents, the youth would have been saved from this plight.”