Indian envoys at the conference called by the Prime Minister in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI)

New Delhi, Dec. 22: The government is hoping to defuse the A.R. Antulay row through a statement in Parliament tomorrow emphasising the hand of Pakistani elements in the murder of Hemant Karkare and delinking the Mumbai terror attack from the Malegaon blasts.

Antulay, the minority affairs minister, had kicked up a controversy by questioning the circumstances in which Karkare, the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) chief, was killed in Mumbai on the night the terror attacks began.

Congress sources expressed the hope that with the Parliament session ending tomorrow, the BJP, which is baying for Antulay’s blood, was unlikely to persist with its demand. However, with the Congress itself split on Antulay, the issue may not die down that fast, a party leader conceded.

The Congress’s “pro-establishment” section, which includes some Brahmins and TV-savvy spokespersons, insisted that Antulay should be shown the door if the party was to keep the “opinion-makers” on its side. But the “left- of-centre” elements feel that Antulay had said nothing amiss and his remarks had sent the “right” message to sections of the minorities and those who felt “repelled” by the BJP’s use of terror as a political weapon.

Government sources said home minister P. Chidambaram was likely to make the statement in the House. The statement is expected to focus on two points: that India does not have a shadow of doubt about Pakistani elements’ hand in the Mumbai attacks and that the ATS investigation into the Malegaon blasts have nothing to do with the terror strikes of November.

The government sources said a separate assurance would be made that the Malegaon probe, which was headed by Karkare, would be pursued. In Mumbai, the new ATS chief, K.P. Raghuvanshi, was quoted by PTI as saying that the Malegaon investigation was at a “conclusion stage”.

“We are in a position to file the chargesheet within the stipulated time. We have gathered sufficient evidence to prove the role of the culprits,” PTI quoted him as saying.

Antulay is understood to have informed the Congress that he was “keen” to make a separate clarification in the Lok Sabha, of which he is a member, and had requested parliamentary affairs minister Vayalar Ravi for time.

However, a Congress source said that while the party had initially wanted this it had had second thoughts, given the minister’s propensity to “surprise and shock” his listeners.

“If Antulay insists, he will be told that his statement will be vetted by the senior leaders and he will have to stick to the final and possibly edited text. If he doesn’t listen, we will have to see what needs to be done. The bottomline is nothing should be said, directly or indirectly, to help Pakistan,” a minister said.

Antulay today continued claiming he had spoken the right things and accused the media of “twisting” them to make them sound as though they helped Pakistan. Queried on whether the Congress contemplated action against him, Antulay said: “Nothing is in anyone’s hands.” If he feared someone, it was Allah, he added.

Asked if Antulay’s reported offer to resign would be accepted in case he remained defiant, the Congress sources conceded the party would then be in an unenviable situation. At least half-a-dozen Muslim MPs of the Congress apparently threatened to quit in case Antulay was forced out.

The Congress took note of its general secretary Digvijay Singh’s “defence” of Antulay on Saturday, which some saw as a reflection of the leadership’s reading of the situation. Singh, said sources, chose his words “carefully” to address the Muslim-dominated constituency of Azamgarh in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The party had already received feedback that the residents of Azamgarh, in the news following several arrests linked to terror strikes, were furious with the UPA government for “indiscriminately” picking up the young on mere suspicion.