Overview
- A three‑member judicial commission tabled its multi‑hundred‑page report in the Uttar Pradesh assembly in early August 2026 and concluded the November 2024 violence at the Shahi Jama Masjid was a pre‑planned plot to block a court‑ordered Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey.
- The panel expressly identifies Samajwadi Party MP Zia‑ur‑Rehman Barq, Suhail Iqbal (son of MLA Iqbal Mehmood) and several Jama Masjid management committee office‑bearers as principal figures who incited and organised the crowd.
- Citing post‑mortem, ballistic and Forensic Science Laboratory findings, the commission says the bullets that killed civilians were not fired from police weapons and praised police restraint while recording 28 police injuries and attempts by rioters to snatch arms.
- The report documents widespread falsehoods and circulated videos that claimed the survey was a pretext to seize or demolish the mosque, saying those rumours helped mobilise and radicalise the crowd ahead of the clash.
- The state has signalled it will act on the report’s recommendations, named individuals deny the findings and plan legal challenges, and the report is already reshaping political debate in Uttar Pradesh with possible legal and electoral consequences; the document also situates the episode in Sambhal’s history of communal tensions and notable demographic change.