QUETTA: Veteran Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri was laid to rest in the New Kahan graveyard here on Thursday. Nawab Marri died in a Karachi hospital on Tuesday. A special plane brought his body to Quetta late on Wednesday night.

Thousands of Marri tribesmen, political leaders and tribal elders attended the funeral prayer at the Railway Hockey Ground.

The provincial emir of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Maulana Ramzan Mengal, led the prayer.

Hundreds of security personnel were deployed around the hockey ground and the graveyard. They, however, did not intervene when some people fired shots in the air after the funeral prayer.

A large number of people were at the graveyard when an ambulance carrying the coffin reached there. Nawab Marri’s eldest son Nawabzada Jangez Marri and other relatives accompanied the coffin.

Provincial ministers Dr Hamid Achakzai and Abdul Raheem Ziaratwal, PML-N leader Naseebullah Bazai, MPA Tahir Mehmood, Dr Jahanzaib Jamaldini, Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch and Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Mama Qadeer Baloch were among those who attended the last rites of Nawab Marri.

Jangez Marri wanted to bury his father in his native town of Kahan in the Kohlu district. However, a majority of the family members decided to bury Nawab Marri in New Kahan on the outskirts of Quetta.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2014