Advani pays homage at Jinnah's mausoleum

Bharatiya Janata Party [ Images ] president Lal Kishenchand Advani [ Images ] on Saturday paid homage at the mausoleum of the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah [ Images ], becoming the most senior Indian politician ever to do so since the sub-continent's partition.

Advani, who sought to disassociate himself from the Sangh Parivar's pet 'Akhand Bharat' theory two days back, placed a wreath at Jinnah's 'mazar' to the sounding of bugles by Pakistani navy personnel and stood in silence as a cleric offered Al-Fateha.

"There are many people who leave an inerasable stamp on history. But there are a few who actually create history. Qaed-E-Azam Mohd Ali Jinnah was one such rare individual," Advani wrote in the visitors book at the mausoleum which he visited with his family amid unprecedented security.

In a similar gesture, the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee [ Images ] had paid homage at Lahore's [ Images ] 'Minar-E-Pakistan' following his historic bus journey in February 1999. However, some Islamic fundamentalist group had washed the monument after his visit to register their protest.