Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday gave green signal for the release of a convicted ‘Khalistani’ terrorist lodged in a prison in Bareilley, Uttar Pradesh, on humanitarian grounds, a senior government official said.

The convict, identified as Waryam Singh, was held guilty by a TADA court in 1990 for taking part in the ‘Punjab liberation movement’ and is lodged in the U.P. jail since then. He is one of the 13 convicted terrorists, lodged in various prisons, whose release has been sought by the Shiromani Akali Dal, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party on humanitarian grounds.

The release is being seen as an appeasement policy of the NDA government, ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections in early 2017.

It was in January this year that Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal handed over a list of 13 terror convicts to Mr. Singh and sought his intervention to facilitate their release.

Since Waryam Singh was lodged in a U.P. prison, the State administration sent a letter to the Union Home Ministry and sought its comment on a proposal to release the terror convict on grounds of old age and good conduct. The U.P. administration wrote to the MHA after Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Avtar Singh Makkar met State Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in July this year.

“There was a request from the Punjab government and the U.P. authorities also wrote to the MHA regarding Waryam Singh’s release. The Home Minister on compassionate grounds decided that since he is already 70-year-old and has served more than 20 years in jail, it would not be unjust to do so. This decision has also been taken seeing his good conduct in jail,” said a senior Home Ministry official.

Earlier the Home Ministry was against the release of convicted terrorists as it would give a wrong signal to the law enforcement agencies and primarily be seen as an “appeasement” of a particular community.