Jaspal Atwal, a convicted Khalistani terrorist, no longer figures in the Home Ministry’s blacklist of Sikh extremists, officials said.

Earlier on Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had courted a controversy after the Canadian High Commission had sent an invitation for dinner with him to Atwal. The invitation was later rescinded following the controversy.

The central government time-to-time reviews the blacklist of the Sikh extremists taking into account intelligence inputs and activities of the persons concerned, a home ministry official said. Names of nearly 150 wanted terrorists and their associates were removed from the blacklist in the last few years, the official said.

“Atwal’s name no longer figures in the current blacklist,” the official said.

The review of the blacklist is always done in consultation with the Punjab government and central security agencies. Most of the persons whose names have been deleted from the wanted list are believed to be currently based in countries like Pakistan, US, Canada, Norway, France, and Germany. After the government removed them from the blacklist, they could move freely around the world and even return to India.

Perhaps taking advantage of the central government’s decision to remove his name from the blacklist, Atwal arrived in India and subsequently got the invitation to the dinner being hosted in honour of Trudeau by High Commissioner of Canada Nadir Patel, the official said. Atwal was a Sikh separatist active in the banned International Sikh Youth Federation when he was convicted of attempt to murder of Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in Vancouver in 1986.

Sidhu was shot at twice on a road and survived, but was later assassinated in India. A judge called it “an act of terrorism” and sentenced Atwal and three others to 20 years in prison. It is not yet immediately known as to how Atwal got an Indian visa and why he was cleared to attend official events here. Atwal is said to have been active in Canadian politics in recent years.

Talking about the dinner invitation to Atwal issue, Canadian PM Trudeau, who is on a week-long visit to India, said that the matter extremely serious. He informed that a Member of Parliament had included him and that the invitation has now been revoked.

“We take this extremely seriously. He should never have received an invitation. As soon as we received the info we rescinded it, a member of Parliament had included this individual,” he said.

Meanwhile, Canadian MP Randeep S Sarai took the complete responsibility for inviting Atwal to PM Trudeau’s reception dinner in New Delhi, which is scheduled to take place later on Thursday.

(With PTI inputs)