An independent commission set up to probe the demotion of a historic mosque in northern Indian town of Ayodhya in 1992, which prompted the worst communal riots across the country, Tuesday submitted its report to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 17 years after it was constituted.

Though the report has not been made public, Justice M. S. Liberhan, who headed the single-member commission, told the media: "I have submitted the report to the prime minister. There are various things that I have reported in my report. You can read it when the report is being released."

He has, however, refused to divulge the contents of the report till it is laid in the Indian Parliament.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who was present when Justice Liberhan submitted the report to the prime minister, said that he has not read the report and hoped that the prime minister's office would forward the report to the home ministry.

The Babri Mosque was a mosque constructed by order of the first Mughal emperor of India, Babur, in Ayodhya in the 16th century.

Before the 1940s, the mosque was called Masjid-i Janmasthan (mosque of the birthplace).

The mosque stood on Ramkot Hill, built on the remains of an old temple. It was destroyed by 150,000 Hindu nationalists, during a planned ceremony on December 6, 1992, despite a commitment to the Indian Supreme Court that the mosque would not be harmed.

The Commission, which was set up just two weeks after the demolition of the Babri mosque on December 6, 1992, was supposed to submit its report by March 16, 1993.

But the commission sought 48 extensions to finish the probe into the incident, which killed some 200 people due to the communal riots between Hindus and minority Muslims in the country.

Source: Xinhua