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A Surrey businessman convicted in a 1986 terrorist shooting in B.C. posed with Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and a Canadian cabinet minister during the prime minister’s trip to India.

Jaspal Atwal, a one-time member of the now-banned International Sikh Youth Federation, had also been invited to a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Canadian High Commission in Delhi on Thursday night.

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But Atwal told Postmedia that he does not plan to attend the dinner as he is in Mumbai on business.

Atwal said in a series of text messages Wednesday that he was in India for Media Waves, a Surrey online radio station. He referred Postmedia to a representative of the radio station who did not return phone calls.

Atwal also suggested it was unfair to raise his criminal conviction for shooting a visiting Punjabi cabinet minister on Vancouver Island in 1986 given how long ago the crime occurred.

He blamed enemies for circulating the photos obtained by Postmedia and stressed that he travelled to India on his own on Feb. 11 and is not part of any official government delegation.