MUMBAI - A PROMINENT group of Indian lawyers is refusing to defend the lone surviving gunman or any other suspects in last month's terrorist attacks on Mumbai, officials said on Wednesday.

A resolution passed over the weekend by the Mumbai Metropolitan Magistrate Court's Bar Association admonishes its 1,000 members against representing any criminal defendants in cases stemming from the Nov 26-29 assault.

'He is not the same as other criminals arrested,' Rohini Wagh, president of the association, said of the gunman. 'His main aim was an attack on our city, our country.'

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab was one of 10 suspected Muslim militants who staged a 60-hour siege on luxury hotels, a restaurant and other sites across Mumbai that left 171 people dead and 294 wounded.

Kasab, 21, a reputed member of banned Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, was captured on security camera footage unloading an assault rifle on dozens of commuters at the city's crowded train station.

Police interrogated him repeatedly, but haven't revealed what criminal charges they plan to file.

Ms Wagh said she hasn't received any objections to the resolution and would be 'very disheartened' should anyone choose to represent Kasab, though doing so wouldn't bring any penalties from the association.

'There is no doubt about what he did,' she said. 'The whole world was watching it for 60 hours.' The decision drew backing from some of India's top defense lawyers.

'His offense is indescribable,' said Majid Memon, a well-known criminal attorney in Mumbai. 'If I have an iota of respect for society then I would say the man does not deserve a defense.'

Attorney Rajan Shirodhkar, who represented defendants in the 1993 terrorist bombings in Mumbai, also supported the move.

'The people whom I had appeared for in 1993 were different,' Mr Shirodhkar said. 'They were not guilty of perpetrating an act of terror. There was no knowledge or direct involvement on their part.'

But Colin Gonsalves, a human rights attorney, called the action 'wrong, both legally and morally'.

'They think they are being ultrapatriotic. But it is not for us to decide if he is guilty,' Ms Gonsalves said. 'If the evidence against him is as strong as it is then he will be convicted and hung.'

It's not the first time lawyers in India have refused to represent terror suspects.

When a series of bombs targeted courts in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in 2005 and 2007, the local bar association refused to take the suspects' cases. A Muslim lawyer who chose to appear as their defense was roughed up on his way to court. -- AP