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Thursday, 8 April 2010

India quietly buries Mumbai gunmen

The Taj Mahal Palace hotel was one of several targets of the nine 
gunmen in November 2008.

New Delhi, India (CNN) -- The nine attackers killed in the 2008 Mumbai siege have been buried, more than a year after the deadly strike on India's financial capital, authorities have disclosed.

"The burial took place some time in January (this year)," said P.K. Jain, principal home secretary in Maharastra state, home to Mumbai.

He did not give the date or the exact location of what he described Tuesday as a secret funeral.

More than 160 people were killed in Mumbai in November, 2008, as 10 men attacked buildings including the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels, the city's historic Victoria Terminus train station, and the Jewish cultural center, Chabad House.

The assault lasted three days.

Indian forces killed nine suspects. Their bodies were embalmed and kept in a hospital morgue as some local Muslim groups refused them a burial in their graveyards, saying the attackers were not true followers of Islam.

The only surviving suspect, Pakistani Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, was formally charged with a range of counts, including murder, attempted murder and waging a war against India.

The court that has tried him along with two other Indian suspects is expected to deliver its verdict next month.

India blamed the attacks on the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda.

Authorities said Kasab was trained by the organization, which was banned in Pakistan in 2002 after an attack on India's parliament. The group denied responsibility.

The Mumbai attacks derailed a fragile process between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan for about 15 months.

Top diplomats from the two South Asian rivals met in February this year in a fresh bid to resume their dialogue.

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