Noted historian Irfan Habib has criticised the Archaeological Survey of India report on Ayodhya as 'unfortunate'.

Habib and some leading historians were speaking at a function in Delhi to inaugurate A G Noorani's book The Babri Masjid Question, 1528-2003: A Matter of National Honour.

Habib also criticised Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishehchand Advani for 'not respecting the secular spirit of the Indian Constitution'.

"Mr Advani and his followers destroyed Babri Masjid. That too in the full view of the nation," Habib said.

A special court in Rae Bareily has acquitted Advani, but charged seven other leaders in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

He called the ASI report as an 'unfortunate piece of motivated writing'.