PA recalls Pakistan ambassador after he appears at rally with terrorist leader

The Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry recalled and rebuked its ambassador to Pakistan on Saturday after he appeared at a rally with an infamous Pakistani terrorist leader.

On Friday, Palestinian Ambassador to Pakistan Walid Abu Ali shared a stage with Hafiz Muhammad Saeed at a large rally in Rawalpindi in protest of US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Saeed, who founded the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba in 1987 and has a $10 million American bounty on his head, has been accused by the US and India of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks which left some 166 people dead. He has denied he was involved in the attacks.

“The Foreign Ministry considers the participation of our ambassador in Pakistan in the mass rally in solidarity with Jerusalem, that took place in Rawalpindi on Friday in the presence of people accused of supporting terrorism, an unintended, but unjustifiable, mistake,” the PA Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The foreign minister, at the direct orders of the president of the state of Palestine, decided to summon the Palestinian ambassador in Pakistan.”

The PA Foreign Ministry’s decision to recall its envoy to Pakistan came after the Indian Ministry of External Affairs protested Abu Ali’s appearance at the rally with Saeed to the Palestinian ambassador in New Delhi, Adnan Abu al-Haija.

“The Government of India has strongly conveyed to the Palestinian side that the Palestinian ambassador in Pakistan’s association with terrorist Hafiz Saeed... is unacceptable,” a statement issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said.

Haija told India’s The Hindu that what Abu Ali did was “unacceptable” to his government.