diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/ReplicationSource.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/ReplicationSource.java
index ed138abfad73..0b69c7c674e3 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/ReplicationSource.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/ReplicationSource.java
@@ -538,9 +538,16 @@ private void initialize() {
       }
     }
 
+
     if (!this.isSourceActive()) {
-      retryStartup.set(!this.abortOnError);
       setSourceStartupStatus(false);
+      if (Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
+        // If source is not running and thread is interrupted this means someone has tried to
+        // remove this peer.
+        return;
+      }
+
+      retryStartup.set(!this.abortOnError);
       throw new IllegalStateException("Source should be active.");
     }
 
@@ -562,9 +569,14 @@ private void initialize() {
       }
     }
 
-    if (!this.isSourceActive()) {
-      retryStartup.set(!this.abortOnError);
+    if(!this.isSourceActive()) {
       setSourceStartupStatus(false);
+      if (Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
+        // If source is not running and thread is interrupted this means someone has tried to
+        // remove this peer.
+        return;
+      }
+      retryStartup.set(!this.abortOnError);
       throw new IllegalStateException("Source should be active.");
     }
     LOG.info("{} queueId={} (queues={}) is replicating from cluster={} to cluster={}", logPeerId(),
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/replication/TestBadReplicationPeer.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/replication/TestBadReplicationPeer.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..cf70ab705c6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/replication/TestBadReplicationPeer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.replication;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseClassTestRule;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseTestingUtil;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Admin;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Connection;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.ConnectionFactory;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.replication.ReplicationPeerConfig;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.replication.ReplicationPeerConfigBuilder;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.ClientTests;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.MediumTests;
+import org.junit.AfterClass;
+import org.junit.BeforeClass;
+import org.junit.ClassRule;
+import org.junit.Rule;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.experimental.categories.Category;
+import org.junit.rules.TestName;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+@Category({ MediumTests.class, ClientTests.class})
+public class TestBadReplicationPeer {
+  @ClassRule
+  public static final HBaseClassTestRule CLASS_RULE =
+    HBaseClassTestRule.forClass(TestBadReplicationPeer.class);
+  private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(TestBadReplicationPeer.class);
+  private final static HBaseTestingUtil TEST_UTIL = new HBaseTestingUtil();
+  private static Configuration conf;
+
+  @Rule
+  public TestName name = new TestName();
+
+  @BeforeClass
+  public static void setUpBeforeClass() throws Exception {
+    TEST_UTIL.getConfiguration().setInt(HConstants.HBASE_CLIENT_RETRIES_NUMBER, 1);
+    TEST_UTIL.getConfiguration().setBoolean("replication.source.regionserver.abort", false);
+    TEST_UTIL.startMiniCluster();
+    conf = TEST_UTIL.getConfiguration();
+  }
+
+  @AfterClass
+  public static void tearDownAfterClass() throws Exception {
+    TEST_UTIL.shutdownMiniCluster();
+  }
+
+  /*
+    Add dummy peer and make sure that we are able to remove that peer.
+   */
+  @Test
+  public void testRemovePeerSucceeds() throws IOException {
+    String peerId = "dummypeer_1";
+    try (Connection connection = ConnectionFactory.createConnection(conf);
+      Admin admin = connection.getAdmin()){
+      ReplicationPeerConfigBuilder rpcBuilder = ReplicationPeerConfig.newBuilder();
+      String quorum =  TEST_UTIL.getHBaseCluster().getMaster().getZooKeeper().getQuorum();
+      rpcBuilder.setClusterKey(quorum + ":/1");
+      ReplicationPeerConfig rpc = rpcBuilder.build();
+      admin.addReplicationPeer(peerId, rpc);
+      LOG.info("Added replication peer with peer id: {}", peerId);
+    } finally {
+      LOG.info("Removing replication peer with peer id: {}", peerId);
+      cleanPeer(peerId);
+    }
+  }
+
+  private static void cleanPeer(String peerId) throws IOException {
+    try (Connection connection = ConnectionFactory.createConnection(conf);
+      Admin admin = connection.getAdmin()) {
+      admin.removeReplicationPeer(peerId);
+    }
+  }
+}