By Asim Tanveer

DERA BUGTI, Pakistan, Sept 1 (Reuters) An elderly rebel chieftain whose killing by Pakistani security forces last weekend sparked violent protests was hastily buried today in his hometown in Pakistan's restive southwest province of Baluchistan.

Only about 30 members of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti's tribe attended the funeral at his family's ancestral graveyard in Dera Bugti, a town 245 km (150 miles) southeast of the provincial capital, Quetta.

They were outnumbered by well over 100 security personnel.

Bugti, nicknamed the ''Tiger of Baluchistan'', was killed on August 26 during an assault on his hideout in the remote hills of gas-rich Baluchistan. His death unleashed a series of violent protests this week across Pakistan's poorest and least populated province.

The 79-year-old rebel, a one time chief minister of the province and a federal government minister, led an increasingly violent campaign to win decades-old demands for autonomy and a greater share of profits from the province's resources.

The campaign included attacks on gas facilities, infrastructure and security forces.

Bugti's body was retrieved yesterday from the rubble of a cave where he had been hiding with his most loyal fighters.

It is Muslim custom to bury the body the day that someone dies or the day after. But, Samad Lasi, a civil administration official in Dera Bugti, said the burial was hurried because the body was decomposing and infested by insects.

''The central part of the body was damaged when the mountain caved in. His face was recognisable,'' Lasi said, while Bugti's watch, wallet, and spectacles were shown to journalists.

No family members were present at the funeral, although officials say they were contacted.

''It was our right to have the body and bury it,'' Jamil Bugti, one of Bugti's five sons, told Reuters.

A mullah who performed the last rites was the only person to see the badly decomposed body in its coffin during the funeral.

''I have recognised the body,'' said cleric Maulana Malook.

FRIDAY PROTESTS Baluch political parties organised a strike today throughout Baluchistan, and streets were deserted in most towns.

There were also strikes in Karachi and Peshawar, the provincial capitals of Sindh and North West Frontier Province.

A session of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, was adjourned after the opposition boycotted proceedings, while President Pervez Musharraf held a meeting, described as routine by army official, of Pakistan's top generals.

The government says Bugti and an unknown number of his men were killed when the cave they were in collapsed after a huge explosion during the fighting in the Baluch district of Kohlu.

The government says security forces did not intend to kill Bugti, but opponents and analysts say they doubt that.

Musharraf, a general who came to power in a coup seven years ago, has faced a barrage of criticism for using overwhelming force to put down Bugti's revolt.

An old-style feudal leader who boasted to a biographer that he killed a man when he was just 11 years old, Bugti had many critics. But in a tribal society where pride and courage are highly valued, Bugti burnished his reputation with his defiance.

Analysts say his slaying could inflame opposition in Baluchistan and stir up other parts of Pakistan where resentment of the army and Punjab province's domination have simmered since the country's formation nearly 60 years ago.

REUTERS MQA HT1404