Babri Masjid probe panel submits report to PM

Seventeen years after it was set up, the Liberhan Commission probing the 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya submitted its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which he forwarded to the interior ministry. Headed by Retd Justice M S Liberhan, the Commission submitted the report to the Prime Minister in presence of Home Minister P Chidambaram. The contents of the report were not immediately known. Set up within ten days of the demolition of the historic mosque on December 6, 1992, which triggered widespread communal violence leading to heavy loss of lives, the panel has become the country's longest serving commission of inquiry. The commission, mandated to inquire into the circumstances leading to the demolition of the Babri Masjid was to submit its report by March 16, 1993 but sought repeated extensions - a total of 48 extensions - to complete its probe. The last three month extension was given in March this year.