Chandigarh, Feb 6 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday dubbed shackling of the 104 deportees who were brought back on a US military aircraft "an insult to the nation."

"The manner in which Indians have been deported from the United States in handcuffs on a military plane is an insult to the nation. The migrants are victims of circumstances and not criminals. They should be treated humanely," said the former SAD president in a post on X.

Also Read | February 5 Birthdays and Birth Anniversaries: Know About Famous People and Celebrities Born on February 5.

He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up this issue with the US government and ensure Indians are not "mistreated" in this manner.

He also lashed out at Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, accusing him of failing to crackdown on notorious travel agents "who played with the lives of our enterprising Punjabis by transporting them to the US illegally."

Also Read | Rahul Gandhi Interacts With Students From Nagaland, Says ‘World Shifting to New Energy System, India Stuck in Outdated Economic Thinking’ (See Pics and Videos).

"The parents of these migrants deserve compensation by penalising the travel agents," he wrote.

A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal immigrants from several states landed in Amritsar on Wednesday, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of a crackdown against illegal immigrants.

Of them, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.

The deportees claimed their hands and legs were cuffed throughout the journey and they were unshackled only after landing at the Amritsar airport.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)