Sunday, July 31 2005 13:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Seeking to put a lid on the controversy regarding the alleged role of BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) president L K Advani in the conspiracy to kill Pakistan Founder Mohamed Ali Jinnah in 1947, a newspaper there has reported that he was "not involved" although some RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) members were arrested then in this connection.

The Urdu daily, Nawa-e-Waqt, reported that a case was registered in September that year at the Jamshed Quarters police station in Karachi against a group of people for "conspiring to kill the Qaid-e-Azam with an explosive".

Some RSS members were caught in the Shikarpur colony while making a bomb, which exploded prematurely, it said.

"The inspector who registered the FIR was a Hindu, Moti Ram. But one witness who had come forth to help the police was Ram Chand Advani which was later confused with L K Advani," a recent Nawa-e-Waqt report said.

"Ram Chand Advani had come forward against the RSS," it added.

The case was lodged at Karachi's Jamshed Quarters police station, on September 10, 1947, a few weeks after Partition.

"We still have the first information report of this case in our records," an official at the police station had reportedly said when Advani visited Pakistan in May-June.

The Pakistani Government had then said it was not aware of any criminal case against the BJP chief.