26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed shares stage with Palestinian envoy in Pak, pics go viral

Walid Abu Ali, the Palestinian envoy, and Hafiz Saeed came together for a rally in Pakistan's Rawalpindi.

Image Credit: Omar R Quraishi/Twitter

Islamabad: Days after his release from house arrest following a Pakistan court's order, Mumbai terror attacks mastermind and the co-founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed was now spotted sharing stage with the Palestinian envoy.

According to media reports, Walid Abu Ali, the Palestinian envoy, attended a large rally organised by the Difa-e-Pakistan Council in Liaquat Bagh in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Friday morning.

Ali and Saeed, the co-founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba, which was blamed for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed over 160, came together during the event.

The image of the two sharing the stage together was widely shared on the social media and it soon became viral.

Ambassador of Palestine to Pakistan Waleed Abu Ali attends a large rally organized by the Difah-e-Pakistan Council in Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi - seen with JUD chief Hafiz Saeed pic.twitter.com/d8UXLFK8Mm

— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) December 29, 2017

Formed in 2012, Difa-e-Pakistan (Defence of Pakistan) Council (DPC) is an alliance of Islamist groups in Pakistan, campaigning for a break in ties with the United States and an end to any chances of warming of relations with India.

Hafiz Saeed carries a bounty of USD 10 million announced by the United States for his alleged involvement in terror activities and has been declared a global terrorist by the United Nations. 

Since his release, Saeed has made several anti-India and anti-US statements at various rallies across Pakistan, invoking Khulbhushan Jadhav and Kashmir.

Interestingly, earlier this month, India joined 127 other countries to vote in the United Nations General Assembly in favour of a resolution opposing the recent decision of US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. 

This was in sync with Palestinian sentiments.

India did not speak on the floor of the Assembly in New York, but after Trump recognised the holy city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, it had said that its stand on Palestine was independent and consistent.

In her intervention at the NAM ministerial meeting on Palestine on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said the path to Israel-Jerusalem peace clearly lay in an early negotiated solution between Israel and Palestine based on mutual recognition and security arrangements.

(With PTI inputs)