The bodies of nine militants killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks have been secretly buried in an undisclosed place, state government officials said.
The gunmen killed 166 people in a 60-hour rampage in India’s financial capital that traumatized the nation and strained already tense relations with Pakistan.
The burials took place in January, Maharashtra state home minister R.R. Patil said, giving no details of the exact date or place.
“Thirty officials were involved in the mission to dig and bury the bodies. Nobody knew about these but the officials involved,” Patil was quoted in the Indian Express newspaper as saying yesterday.
MORGUE
The bodies had remained at the J.J. Hospital morgue in Mumbai for more than a year after India’s Muslim community opposed giving them space in their graveyards.
A judge is expected to hand down his verdict early next month in the trial of the sole surviving gunman, Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, who was caught during the attacks in November 2008.
The prosecution has demanded the death penalty for Kasab and presented evidence it considers overwhelmingly proves his guilt, including a photo of him carrying an AK-47 machine gun through the main train terminal in Mumbai.
COSTS
Patil announced the burials in response to legislators’ questions about the costs incurred by the state to preserve the bodies.
“I want to tell the Pakistan prime minister that if he cannot prevent terror attacks on India ... we will not let them escape and will bury them in this land [India],” the minister told the legislature.
The nine militants were gunned down by security forces at separate locations across Mumbai.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese