Bodies of Mumbai terrorists unburied

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The bodies of the nine suspected Pakistani terrorists -- all believed to have been involved in the attacks on Mumbai -- are still lying in a hospital morgue almost five months after the attacks occurred.

Security is tight for the trial of the only surviving alleged Mumbai terrorist.

The public prosecutor trying the lone surviving suspected gunman in the Mumbai attacks told CNN the dead suspects have not been buried because no one has come to claim them and local Muslim officials are refusing to bury the men in Mumbai's Muslim graveyards.

Public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam said he will soon be in discussions with officials to decide what should happen with the bodies.

The burial issue has stoked controversy. Groups such as the Indian Muslim Council don't want the people buried in Muslim cemeteries because they have defamed the religion. Other Muslims have disagreed, saying burial should be available for any Muslim.

John O. Voll -- professor of Islamic history and associate director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington -- said the Abrahamic religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have very often set restrictions on grounds they have sanctified for burials. One stricture, for example, has been prohibiting burial of a person from another faith.

"The non-burial" of the suspected terrorists "is making the statement that they are acting so contrary to Islam they are not acting as Muslims and therefore they are judged as being unbelievers and not worthy of being buried in a Muslim cemetery," Voll said.