In a demonstration of its ability to maintain secrecy, Maharashtra [Images] Home Minister R R Patil [Images] revealed that the bodies of nine of the ten terrorists who attacked Mumbai [Images] on November 26, 2008 have been disposed in a clandestine manner early in January 2010.

Patil made this startling revelation to the state legislative council on Tuesday when the members from the opposition made a jibe at the government for not being able to maintain secrecy.

Patil, while replying to a debate on how leak-proof is the home department, said that the state was wary of employing labourers to dig the burial holes, as it would endanger the secrecy.

Instead of labourers, 40 to 50 officers themselves went to the jungle, dug the hole and disposed off the bodies.

 "I want to tell the nation through the legislature, we wanted to see whether the media gets the wind of it. We wanted to keep the news as secret as possible, and were successful in it. It shows that our department is leak proof," stated Patil in the council.

He also revealed that the lights in the room in which the bodies were stored were switched off to give the notion to the media that the bodies are still there. 

The decision to dispose the bodies was taken, as all efforts to handover the bodies to Pakistan did not yield result.

The secrecy was adapted by the state as prominent Muslim leaders were against the burial of the terrorists on the Indian soil, and so were some Hindu right wing parties.