Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday alleged a “conspiracy to defame Punjab and Punjabis” ahead of the scheduled arrival in Amritsar of the second flight carrying deported Indians from the United States.

“The Ministry of External Affairs should state the criteria based on which Amritsar was selected to land the aircraft,” Mann said. “You select Amritsar to defame Punjab…Amritsar is being chosen deliberately to portray that only Punjabis are illegal migrants.”

He demanded that the Union government should get the plane’s route changed so that it could land in Delhi, Ghaziabad’s Hindon airbase, or Ahmedabad.

On February 5, a US military flight with 104 Indian citizens arrived in Amritsar after being deported from the US. Of them, 33 each were from Gujarat and Haryana, 30 from Punjab, three from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.

A second aircraft with 119 deported Indian citizens from the US is due to land in Amritsar between 10 pm and 11 pm on Saturday. A third flight carrying deportees is set to land on Sunday.

The deportations are part of a wider crackdown by US President Donald Trump’s administration.

In the wake of the deportations, the Punjab police has formed a special investigation team to inquire into undocumented migration and human trafficking.

Ready to take back undocumented migrants: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asserted that India is prepared to take back any verified Indian citizens who are in the US without proper documentation.

“We are of the opinion that anybody who enters and lives in another country illegally, they have absolutely no legal right or authority to live in that country,” Modi said.

Separately, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri also said the issue of illegal immigration was discussed during Modi’s meeting with Trump.

“They committed to streamlining avenues for legal mobility of students and professionals and facilitating short-term tourist and business travel while also committing to aggressively addressing and tackling illegal immigration and human trafficking,” Misri said.