A video of former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf praising the founder of terrorist organisation al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, has gone viral on social media.

In the video, Musharraf made many strong remarks about terrorism, most startling of which was calling bin Laden a hero. He said, “We introduced religious militancy here in favour of Pakistan, we brought the Mujahideen, we trained the Taliban and gave them weapons – they were our heroes. Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri were our heroes.” The video is undated, news agency ANI reported.

He also argued that with changing times the hero has become the villain. “Religious militancy, that earlier had a positive impact, has now been converted into terrorism,” Musharraf said.