The Year 2017 was all set to end on a bad note for Palestine, thanks to Ambassador Walid Abu Ali, who had created a global uproar by openly rubbing shoulders with Hafeez Saeed, a globally known terrorist mastermind.  It is difficult to assume that Ambassador Ali was unaware of Saeed’s credentials, since he has been carrying a bounty of $10 million. Moreover, under intensive American pressure, Pakistan had placed Saeed under house arrest for almost eleven months and released him recently through a well-orchestrated decree to the dismay of liberals at home and abroad. 

That Hafeez Saeed’s outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) had created mayhem in India’s financial capital, Mumbai in 2008 is a matter of public record. Not much widely known is his other enterprise, Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, (FIF), which has been active collaborating with various Middle East and South-East Asian terrorist groups. Pakistan’s Interior Ministry had placed FIF and the new LeT avatar, Jamaat-ud-Dawa on the watch list as per UNSC 1267 Sanctions eleven months ago.   Both FIF and LeT have been active in the Middle East from around the time the ISIS made its presence; and like IS, the LeT/FIF are committed to  the dream of reviving the Middle Ages Caliphate once again.     

 

From Paris to Salzburg in Austria, from Sydney to Kathmandu, and from Italy to Belgium it has been a long footprint for the FIF.  Yet, the Western anti-terrorism Ayatollahs have not given its apparatchiks a run for their money- a sad commentary by itself on the way the world looks at the 21st century terrorism phenomenon that has no parallels, says a noted commentator.  

 

“LeT and its clones in the terrorism theatre are not plotting to overthrow established governments from a remote cave in a highland but are working through diaspora and refugees and through human trafficking routes with instruments like FIF to tap simmering discontent and to create mayhem as their holy endeavour”. The FIFs of the world should be frontally attacked and made immobile instead of hoping for the day when they expose their feet and hands in blood.

 

Walid Abu Ali was on stage with Hafeez Saeed at a meeting held in Rawalpindi, the cantonment town adjoining Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The town is the home to the General Headquarters (GHQ) of Pak Army and its dreaded intelligence outfit, Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI, which has nurtured LeT till the government was forced to ban the group    

Both India and the United States have reasons to be angry, and indeed to be upset with the activities of Hafeez Saeed. He is at the forefront of spewing venom against India. And he has been leading the Dif-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), which an umbrella body of some 40 Pak political and religious outfits which are anti-US. 

That DPC also enjoys the ISI blessings is known to the students Pak-US relations. It was formed in November 2011 shortly after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed by American planes along the Afghan border; Pakistan closed NATO supply routes to Afghanistan after the strikes and reopened the routes in July 2012 when the U.S apologized.  

At one time, former cricketer-turned politician, Imran Khan, who is hoping to capture power in the 2018 elections was also associated with DPC. The short point is like LeT’s credentials, the profile of DPC, which hosted the Rawalpindi rally is in .public domain.

War with India is a permanent theme of Saeed’s public speeches which he delivers freely across the length and breadth of Pakistan. Walid Abu Ali could not be unaware of Hafiz Saeed’s activities, his violent and antediluvian views and how India looks at him.  He would have also known that the US has offered $10 million to anyone who can facilitate arrest of Hafiz Saeed, the bearded man incessantly blinking his eyes behind dark glasses.

As a diplomat Ali would be expected to refrain from being dragged into the political arena in the host country, especially when it concerns a third country with whom the Palestinian government has good relations. By joining the Hafiz Saeed show, the Palestinian ambassador would seem to endorse violence against India that Saeed preaches day and night.   

Ali’s government almost certainly subscribes to Hafiz Saeed’s strong views against the US; the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world, indeed the Muslim world, are one in condemning the US for its alleged pro-Israel policy. But the question is has the Palestinian government also changed its views on India and signalled the end of a long friendly association between the two countries? 

A statement by the Palestinian foreign ministry said: “The minister of foreign affairs and expatriates under the direct instructions of the president of the state of Palestine has decided to recall the Palestinian ambassador to Pakistan immediately.” It said that the envoy’s participation “in a mass rally in solidarity with Jerusalem… in the presence of individuals accused of supporting terrorism is an unintended mistake, but not justified”.

As New Delhi has been saying over the years, India’s relations with Israel are not intended to harm Palestine in any way; India accepts the two-state formula for permanent settlement of the Palestinian problem. That is also the position of most countries. It is another matter that that has done nothing to end the crisis in the region.