The leader of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), LK Advani, has submitted his resignation. He offered to step down as party president at the end of a six-day visit to Pakistan, where he praised the nation's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The BBC's Nick Bryant in Delhi said Advani spoke of Jinnah's "forceful espousal of a secular state in which every citizen would be free to practice his own religion". Advani described the founder of Pakistan as one of the "very few who actually create history". Hindu nationalist groups close to the BJP and the ruling Congress party have led the protests against his comments during his Pakistan visit. But Advani is standing by his comments. "I have not said or done anything in Pakistan which I need to retract or review", Advani wrote in a letter to a senior party member requesting the BJP to "relieve" him of the post of party leader.
