MUMBAI - AN AUTOPSY on one of the Islamist militants who laid siege to Mumbai last week showed he had not eaten for days and could have been on drugs, an Indian newspaper said on Thursday.

The examination of Abu Dera Ismael Khan's body found no food in his stomach, raising suspicions he and the nine other militants were fuelled by drugs, the Indian Express said.

'It is difficult to find traces of these substances if consumed in small amounts,' it quoted an unnamed pathologist at Nair hospital as saying.

'We have preserved their viscera and blood samples and sent it for chemical analysis.' Khan's was the first body taken to the Nair hospital, the paper said, after he was shot in the head by police during a gun battle near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai's main railway station.

The newspaper said he was with Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the only one of the militants taken alive.

The two men sprayed the teeming station with automatic weapon fire, killing more than 50 people.

Police said on Wednesday they had found a large cache of explosives left behind by the pair among luggage dropped by their victims.

They were among 10 militants who launched coordinated assaults on Mumbai on November 26, bringing the city to a standstill as they kept security forces at bay for almost 60 hours.

The Indian government has linked the men to Pakistan-based Islamist group Lakshar-e-Taiba, an Islamist outfit sometimes suspected of links with Pakistan's intelligence agencies. -- AFP