Violence in Quetta was likely to escalate on Tuesday when thousands of mourners gathered for funeral prayers for Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the nationalist rebel leader who was killed in an attack by Pakistani government troops at the weekend.

Violence has flared in Pakistan’s troubled southwestern Baluchistan province since Sunday, a day after the 79-year-old rebel leader was killed by Pakistani military forces who attacked a remote mountainous cave where he was hiding with a group of his followers.