Aligarh, Sept 12: Questioning credibility of the Archeological Survey of India's report on Ayodhya, noted historian Irfan Habib has said the report was "one sided" and charged ASI with having "deliberately altered" the names of historical periods in its finds. "ASI report has deliberately altered the names of historical period under political motivation," he said. Delivering a lecture at Aligarh Muslim University Staff Club here recently.

"The report is a deliberate attempt to supress the truth, it failed to conduct a tabulation of the animal bones found during the excavation of the disputed sites," he said. He said these animal bones have been recovered from "various levels of different periods and the ASI report should have tabulated the bones by periods, levels and trenches and should have also specified the species of animals".

Habib claimed that ASI report "offers not a single example of any medieval temple where pillars stood on the brick-basis which have been found on the site.

He said the presence of Buddhist, Jain or Shivaite stones and terracotta should also be taken into account because the so-called composite Buddhist, Jain and Shivaite temple of the type which the ASI is indirectly trying to suggest has "till date never been found in India". Bureau Report