Published 12:23 IST, November 14th 2019
'Our Heroes were turned into Villains': Old Musharraf on Osama and Pak's terrorism
An old interview of former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf terming Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists 'heroes' recently surfaced the internet
An undated video shared by Pakistani politician Farhatullah Babar shows former President of Pakistan Parvez Musharraf stating the Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden was ‘our hero’. He also said that terrorists, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Jalaluddin Haqqani, and others were "Pakistan's heroes".
'They were our heroes'
In the video, Parvez Musharraf can be heard saying "Kashmiris who came to Pakistan received a hero reception here. We used to train them and support them. We considered them as Mujahideen who will fight with the Indian Army. Then, various terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba rose in this period. They (jihadi terrorists) were our heroes."
'Our heroes were turned into villains'
Former Pakistan President also said the global environment was changed later and the world started viewing things differently ‘Our heroes were turned into villains’ he said.
"In 1979, we had introduced religious militancy in Afghanistan to benefit Pakistan and to push the Soviets out of the country. We brought Mujahideen from all over the world, we trained them and supplied weapons to them. We trained the Taliban, sent them in. They were our heroes. Haqqani was our hero. Osama bin Laden was our hero. Ayman al-Zawahiri was our hero. Then the global environment changed. The world started viewing things differently. Our heroes were turned into villains."
Meanwhile, earlier Pakistan refused any involvement in ‘Kashmir’ and other terrorist activity. After the devastating Pulwama Attack, the U.S Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement said that "The United States calls on Pakistan to end immediately the support and safe haven provided to all terrorist groups operating on its soil.”
Updated 13:30 IST, November 14th 2019