Tartari: Army officials said on Thursday that it would take days to retrieve the body of Nawab Akbar Bugti, which was pinned under a boulder.
Two senior army officials, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the search for the remains, said soldiers working at the cave on Wednesday spotted Bugti's head and shoulders protruding from underneath a giant boulder.
It would take at least three days to remove his body from underneath the boulder, said one of the officials, who works in army intelligence.
Talal, One of Bugti's sons, rejected the military statements, saying he believed his father's body was taken to a hospital shortly after his death.
"Officials told me four to five days ago that he was underneath a boulder, but other army officers have said he is lying preserved or frozen in a hospital," Talal Bugti said in a telephone call from Balochistan's capital, Quetta. "I don't believe the military."
The elder Bugti's death has sparked days of rioting and protests led by his supporters in Balochistan, a fiercely independent and restive region bordering Iran and Afghanistan.
Bugti had led an often violent political campaign against the Pakistani government to win a greater share of wealth obtained from natural resources such as gas and oil, extracted in the region.
On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters blocked highways across Balochistan, cutting Quetta off from major cities such as Karachi in the south and Lahore to the east.
Hundreds of people were prevented from going to work and scores of businesses and offices shut for the day. Officials said yesterday that all the roads had reopened.
Another of Bugti's sons, Jamil, warned that the unrest would continue until his father's body is returned to his family for burial. "We need my father's body. It is very important for us according to Islam and our culture," the son said.