KABUL, July 24: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, accompanied by three ministers, attended the funeral of King Zahir Shah who was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard here on Tuesday.

The prime minister was received at the Kabul Airport by Minister for Higher Education Muhammad Azam Dadfur and Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan Sardar Tariq Azizuddin.

The prime minister was accompanied by Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani and Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao.

An Afghan army contingent presented salute to Prime Minister Aziz on arrival.

Soon after his arrival, the prime minister went to the Presidential Palace to pay homage to the late king.

The body of King Zahir Shah, known as the father of the nation, lay in state at the presidential palace, enabling the delegations to pay last respects.

Later, the coffin was taken to the Eidgah and Prime Minister Aziz joined hundreds of mourners and walked to the burial place, around a kilometre from the Presidential Palace, to offer funeral prayers.

The body was later taken to the ancestral graveyard Tapa-i-Maranjan for burial beside the grave of his father late King Nadir Shah.

Delegations from 20 countries arrived here to pay homage to the late king, including Prince Karim Aga Khan, British Foreign Secretary and Indian Minister for Water Resources Saifuddin Soz.—APP