Second batch also chained on-board flight

Women, children were not restrained during Saturday's flight, say deportees

- Surjit Singh

AMRITSAR: The second US military aircraft carrying deported Indian migrants landed in Amritsar late on Saturday with 117 people in shackles, those who were on board said on Sunday, describing conditions that the government officials previously said would be raised with their American counterparts.

"Our legs were chained and hands were also cuffed," Harjit Singh told reporters at his village Khanowal Bohri in Gurdaspur district, describing how he and his cousin Harjot Singh were among those deported. He said they were "badly thrashed in jungles of Panama" and forced at gunpoint by mafia members during their journey.

The C-17 Globemaster jet landed around 11:30 pm carrying 65 people 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.

The cousins' journey, costing ₹45 lakh each, began on October 13 last year. "We sold out our 3-acre agrarian land, a residential plot and a car and got a loan to arrange ₹90 lakh to make payment of the agent who is resident of nearby town Kalanaur and currently residing in the US," Harjit said. They finally crossed the U.S. border on January 27.

Harjit described severe mistreatment in U.S. detention: "I was also beaten up and tortured in detention camp in the US. In naked condition, I was detained in an air-conditioned room for 24 hours."

His cousin Harjot remains in deep shock and is not speaking to anyone. Another deportee, Daljit Singh, a native of Kurala Kalan village in Hoshiarpur district, left his native village for the US last year in a desperate bid to provide a better future for his family.

"Our legs were chained and hands were also cuffed throughout the journey. There were three women and three children on board who were not cuffed," Daljit told reporters.