Patna: RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) President and Railway Minister Laloo Prasad today (Sep 14, 2004) asked former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani to come clean on 'his involvement' in the alleged conspiracy to assassinate the founding father of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

"I fail to understand why Advani is silent after I raised the issue more than a week ago. Either he should admit his involvement in the conspiracy or deny it. If I am wrong I will apologise," he told reporters.

Faced with the unrelenting demand by the Opposition NDA (National Democratic Alliance) for the ouster of 'tainted' ministers, including himself from the Union Cabinet, Laloo had on August 5 dropped a bombshell alleging that Advani was an accused in hatching a conspiracy to kill Jinnah and described him as an 'international absconder'.

Laloo released photocopies of a January 31, 2002 story in a Pakistani news portal 'islam online.net' which claimed that the country's court officials were re-examining a 50-year-old case against Advani, in which he was alleged to have been involved in a plot to kill Jinnah.

The website quoting court sources said Karachi police had registered a case on September 10, 1947, against 18 Hindu hardliners, including Advani, over the alleged plot to kill Jinnah and other leaders of the Pakistan movement earlier that year. Six persons were even convicted in the case, it said.

Stating that Advani's 'silence' on the issue was 'strange'; Laloo demanded that the former Deputy Prime Minister explain his stand on the issue. "If the allegation is untrue, he must reply to it," he demanded.