Nawab Akbar Bugti, 79, was killed when an explosion Saturday destroyed his mountain cave hide-out in the Tartari area of Kohlu district in southwestern Baluchistan province. His son has said the violence that has gripped southern Pakistan since his death would continue until his father's body was returned.

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.

Bugti's death has sparked days of rioting and protests led by his supporters in Baluchistan, 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, like gas and oil, extracted in the region.

On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters blocked highways across Baluchistan, cutting Quetta off from major cities like 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 Thursday that all the roads had reopened.

Bugti's son, Jamil, had 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 Wednesday while greeting people expressing their condolences at his father's home in Quetta.