NEW DELHI (RNS) A year after nine Islamist terrorists were shot dead following a three-day rampage in Mumbai that killed 166 people at two luxury hotels and a Jewish center, the bodies of the men lie unclaimed in a hospital morgue.

The bodies of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militants from Pakistan are kept in the now stinking morgue of the state-run Sir J.J. Hospital in south Mumbai, where they were initially taken for autopsies.

Mumbai police are in a difficult position after Indian Muslim groups refused to provide burial plots for the nine suspected terrorists; Pakistani officials have not responded to requests from India’s Ministry of External Affairs to bring the bodies home to Pakistan.

The dispute has pitted Muslim against Muslim as India finds itself the arbiter of an unsavory dispute with neighboring Pakistan, and with its own Muslim minority, over what to do with bodies that no one wants to claim.

The dispute gets to the very heart of Muslim practice: traditionally, Muslim bodies are wrapped in a simple shroud and buried quickly, usually within 24 hours. In Mumbai, unclaimed bodies are normally kept at a hospital for seven days, after which the police are allowed to cremate them according to the religious customs of the deceased.

Two days after the gunmen were killed, the Jama Masjid Trust, which manages Muslim cemeteries in Mumbai, said the terrorists were not true followers of Islam and therefore they could not be buried on their land. The Muslim Council of India and the influential Darul Uloom Islamic seminary in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state supported that decision.

The trust’s position reflects Indian Muslims’ sentiment against terrorism, said Zafarul Islam Khan, president of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, a forum of influential Islamic organizations and individuals.

“The bodies should be thrown into the Arabian Sea,” Khan said, the anger evident in his voice. Khan added that the government could simply bury them on land that is not consecrated as a Muslim cemetery.

Khan conceded the dispute is a “very peculiar case,” but said “the bodies belong to the foreigners who brought such destruction and mayhem in the country.”

Some Muslim groups, however, are unhappy with the denial of burial rites to the slain terrorists.

“It is all right to express anger against the act of the terrorists, which was highly condemnable,” says Imam Umair Ahmed Ilyasi, secretary general of the All India Organization of Imams of Mosques, which represents some 500,000 imams, or Muslim spiritual leaders, across India.

But while the protest is legitimate and understandable, all Muslims should be allowed burial in keeping with Islamic law and basic human dignity, he said.

“After all, their souls have left — we only have their bodies,” he said. “Whatever they did will be judged and punished by God.”

Mujtaba Farooque, president of the Coordination Committee of Indian Muslims, an umbrella group of leading Muslim organizations, said the Muslim groups are denying burial rights “merely to prove their patriotism.”

“It is extremism and inhuman to deny burial to anyone, he said. “Even bodies of animals should be buried respectfully. Unfortunately, Muslims in India are seen with suspicion and in reaction to the misconception, some go to extremes to prove their patriotism by acts like this.”

Although India claims the world’s third-largest Muslim population, Muslims account for little more than 13 percent of the nation’s 1.1 billion citizens. Hindu nationalist groups often charge Muslims with supporting terrorism.

After autopsies were performed on the nine bodies, the corpses were kept in the hospital morgue to help prove a connection with the group’s sole surviving suspect, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, who is facing trial in a special court in Mumbai.

Even after witnesses identified the bodies last January, the police were unsure how to dispose of them. Now, police are pinning their hopes on a special court hearing on the attacks.

Mumbai police spokesman Sanjay Vagmare said the court finally directed the police to dispose of the bodies after state prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam raised the issue during a hearing on Nov. 13.

“The court will give a specific direction on how to cremate the bodies soon,” he said.