Amritsar, Feb 5: A US military aircraft carrying the first batch of 104 illegal Indian immigrants, with the highest number of 33 each from Haryana and Gujarat, reached Amritsar in Punjab on Wednesday.

A total of 30 deportees were residents of Punjab. The US military C-17 aircraft landed at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport amid tight security.

Three each from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra while two from Chandigarh. The deportees include 25 women and 12 minors, with the youngest passenger being just four years old.

Forty-eight people are below the age of 25. The flight, which took off from Texas on Tuesday, also carried 11 crew members and 45 US officials overseeing the deportation process.

A senior Punjab official said that most deportees from the state belong to Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Patiala, Mohali and Sangrur. Some of them had entered the US illegally, while others overstayed their visas.

They were deported on the C-17 plane that took off from San Antonio, Texas. This was the first round of deportation of illegal immigrants that coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington next week.

This will be PM Modi’s first visit after Donald Trump took over as US President for the second time. External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar had earlier said that New Delhi is open to the “legitimate return” of Indian nationals living illegally abroad, including in the US.

India has expressed readiness to accept these migrants, post-verification, EAM Jaishankar conveyed this to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month.

“For the first time in history, we are locating and loading illegal aliens into military aircraft and flying them back to the places from which they came,” President Trump told reporters last month.

Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal has expressed disappointment over the US decision to deport the Indians, saying they have contributed to the US economy and should have been granted permanent residency, instead of being deported.

Approximately 7,25,000 illegal immigrants from India live in the US, making it the third-largest population of unauthorised immigrants after Mexico and El Salvador, according to data from the Pew Research Centre.

Many people from Punjab, who are now facing deportation, had entered the US through the “donkey route” or other illegal means by spending lakhs of rupees. The US administration has launched a crackdown against illegal immigrants after Trump became the President.

Bengaluru, Feb 5: Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara stated on Wednesday that the government will hold a meeting to decide whether to allow Class 10 students in the state to wear the hijab while attending exams and will convey its stance to the Supreme Court.

When asked whether any discussion had taken place regarding allowing female students wearing hijabs to appear for exams, HM Parameshwara said, “A meeting on this matter has not been held yet, but we will conduct one.”

When asked whether the government could make a decision while the hijab issue is still before the Supreme Court, he responded, “It is not about making a decision despite the case being in the Supreme Court. We need to make our own decisions and also communicate our stance to the court. We must present our opinion based on the current situation, and we will do so.”

The government in Karnataka is treading cautiously in connection with the matter of allowing students to write exams wearing the hijab.

During the tenure of the previous BJP government, the hijab crisis made international news and created a furore in the state.

While answering a question on whether the government will allow female students wearing the hijab to attend exams, Home Minister G. Parameshwara said on Tuesday, “We need to discuss the matter in detail and after discussions we will take a decision in this regard.”

When reminded that there was only one month left for exams, HM Parameshwara stated, “One month is sufficient period to discuss the matter.”

The previous BJP government imposed a ban on the wearing of the hijab along with school and pre-university (class 11 and 12) college female students.

The move was questioned by the students in the High Court and the court had upheld the decision of the government. The matter is presently with the Supreme Court.

The issue had also divided society, especially students, on communal lines across Karnataka.

A two-judge panel in the Supreme Court returned a split decision in October: One judge Hemant Gupta upheld the Karnataka High Court ruling, while the other, Sudhanshu Dhulia found it had ruled in error.

The judges requested the Chief Justice to refer the matter to a larger Bench.

The implementation of dress codes by educational institutes, banning the hijab, was criticised inside India and abroad by officials in countries including the United States and Pakistan.

The ban was defended by politicians such as Arif Mohammad Khan, Aaditya Thackeray and activist Taslima Nasreen.

New Delhi: Veteran Bollywood actor and All India Trinamool Congress MP Shatrughan Sinha demanded a ban on non-veg in India while interacting with media persons outside the Parliament on Tuesday (February 4). He lauded the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand while also pointing out the complexities of enforcing such a law across the country. However, he was trolled for his statement.

Sinha expressed his support for the UCC but opened up about the regional disparities that could pose challenges in its nationwide application.

“Beef has been banned in many parts of the country. I think that not only beef, but non-vegetarian food in general should be banned in the country. However, in some places, it is still legal to consume beef, including the northeast,” Sinha remarked.

He added a touch of humour to his statement, saying, “Waha khao toh yummy, par humare North India mein khao toh mummy (It is okay to eat it in the northeast, but not in North India).”

Netizens react to Shatrughan Sinha’s statement

Soon after a video of the actor’s statement surfaced, netizens trolled him, asking how is non-veg food related to UCC.

Reacting to his statement, a user wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “UCC is not for food habits… its about marriage and property rights.”

“Non vegetarian food and uniform civil code, what’s he speaking? 😀” read another comment.

Another comment read, “Food has nothing to do with UCC. This is plight of MPs who only spread disinformation all the time.”

“It’s not govts right to tell what people should eat and not , try to fix other bigger issues like like pollution and people littering and shitting in open,” wrote a user.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Sinha won from Asansol (West Bengal) seat. He defeated Bharatiya Janata Party’s Surendrajit Singh Ahluwalia by a margin of 59,564 votes.

On the film front, he was last seen on the big screens in the 2018 movie Yamla Pagla Deewana: Phir Se. He played the role of a judge in the film.