Mumbai, April 6 (IANS) The bodies of the nine Pakistani terrorists who were killed by Indian special forces after their three-day bloody siege of landmark areas of the city in November 2008 were quietly buried in January this year, it was announced here Tuesday.

Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil told the state assembly: "I did not see any need to keep preserving the bodies for a longer time. So, we took the decision to bury the bodies."

In view of the sensitivity of the issue and the fact that many Muslim organizations had opposed giving the dead terrorists a burial place anywhere in India, the minister said that adequate care was taken to ensure that the matter remained a secret and the information did not leak out.

However, he did not mention the date on which the burial took place or even the place where the bodies were buried.

Patil added that the decision to bury the bodies was also prompted by the huge ongoing expenses incurred in preserving the bodies in an air-conditioned room of the morgue in the Sir J.J. Hospital and the round-the-clock security deployed at the venue and other aspects.

Pakistan had disowned the men and nobody had come up to claim their bodies.

Only one man, Ajmal Amir Kasab, survived the attack that resulted in the death of 166 Indians and foreigners, and is now on trial.