MUMBAI - MUSLIM clerics in Mumbai said on Tuesday that the bodies of nine militants who carried out last week's attacks in the city should not be buried in India.

A group of Muslim scholars representing about 50 religious organisations met to discuss how the community should respond to the attacks that killed 188 people and injured more than 300.

Only one of the 10 gunmen involved in the shootings and grenade attacks has been captured alive. India says all the attackers came from Pakistan.

'These people should be buried where they came from. There is no space for them on our holy land,' said Syed Moinuddin Ashraf, president of the city's Jamia Qadriya Ashrafiya madrassa or Muslim religious school.

'Any country found involved in these attacks should be declared a terrorist state,' he added.

The bodies are currently lying in two morgues in Mumbai hospitals, where officials said they are waiting for the local government's directions on what to do with them.

'It seems that non-profit bodies have been asked to bury them, but no one seems to be ready,' said one senior official at Mumbai's Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy (J.J.) Hospital where eight bodies are being kept.

The authorities may also wait for a few more days in case someone makes a claim on the bodies, the official said.

The clerics said they hoped their recommendation to refuse burial in India would be heeded.

'If someone goes ahead and does it, it would be a big disappointment, a big letdown,' Mr Ashraf said. -- AFP