"The Palestine side has conveyed deep regrets over the incident and assured the Government of India (GoI) that they are taking serious cognizance of their Ambassador's presence at this event," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in its statement.

In its strongly-worded protest, India reminded the Palestinian government that Saeed was a UN-designated terrorist and their ambassador's association with him is "unacceptable".

The statement from MEA read, "Government of India has strongly conveyed to the Palestinian side that the Palestinian Ambassador in Pakistan's association with terrorist Hafiz Saeed, who is designated by the United Nations, at an event in Rawalpindi on 29.12.2017, is unacceptable."

Palestine has decided to recall its ambassador to Pakistan Walid Abu Ali, informed Palestinian envoy to India Adnan Abu Al Haija on Saturday.

"The Palestine government has told Ali that he was not anymore its envoy to Pakistan," Haija told PTI. He said that Ali had been given a couple of days to pack and return from Islamabad.

India had been miffed over reports that Palestinian ambassador to Pakistan Walid Abu Ali, on Friday morning, had attended a large rally organised by the Difa-e-Pakistan Council in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and shared the stage with Hafiz Saeed.

The presence of the Palestinian envoy in a rally organised by JuD comes as a rude shock for India which had voted in support of the United Nations General Assembly motion calling for cancellation of US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. India's this move had also attracted criticism from Tel Aviv.