Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who often finds himself in awkward situations due to his political remarks, once again landed in a big soup when he claimed that former US President Ronald Reagan had compared Afghan Mujahideen leaders, which is an Islamic rebel group, to founding father of America. Imran made misinformed statements during his address at the prestigious United Nations General Assembly.

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In his address, Khan claimed that President Reagan invited the militant group’s leader in the White House in 1983 and compared them to the founding fathers of the United States of America. The prime minister further added that the militants were at that time considered “heroes” by the US.

The clip of Khan’s misinformed claim went viral on social media, following which both the internet users and opposition leaders in Pakistan started slamming Khan for embarrassing Pakistan at a global forum like that of the United Nations. Here’s the clip of Khan’s remarks.

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As per the clip, Prime Minister Imran Khan credited “news items” to be his source of information about the claim.

Here are some reactions!

Soon after the video went viral, well-known human rights activist Saleem Javed said that Imran Khan misquoted President Reagan and took excerpts of his speech from a fake source of information.

“Anas Haqqani compared the Haqqanis with Washington & Churchill and now PM Imran Khan quotes a fabricated video during the #UNGA speech that President Reagan had compared Mujahideen with America’s founding fathers. Imagine the embarrassment,” Javed wrote on Twitter

Javed also posted a video which he claimed to be the original source where President Ronald Reagan praised mujahideen commander Abdul Haq and later mentioned the phrase “moral equal of our founding fathers” in the context of Nicaraguan rebels. Here’s the clip.

While making the awkward claims, the prime minister through his address was actually trying to establish that Pakistan suffered most from the US troop pullout and return of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

 In his speech, Khan also said Pashtuns are Taliban-sympathisers and as Pakistan has a huge Pashtun population, the country is facing attacks from inside the country as well