The 56-year-old Shiite cleric was put to death along with 46 others on Saturday. Some were beheaded, others were shot by firing squad.

Peaceful protests were held across Pakistan, including in Quetta where about 1,000 people called on the government to reconsider its ties with Riyadh and demonstrators held placards bearing anti-Saudi slogans, Pakistan-based Express Tribune reported.

In Lahore, around 1,500 took to the streets, calling Sheikh Nimr’s execution a gross human rights violation, while in Karachi about 1,000 men, women and children shouted slogans against the royal Saudi family.

Similar protests also took place in several districts of Sindh province and Islamabad, where about 500 people gathered to call on the UN to intervene to stop Saudi Arabia from targeting Shiite Muslims.

In Srinagar, the main city of Indian-occupied Kashmir, hundreds of angry Shiites clashed with police as they protested the cleric’s execution.

The demonstrators bearing photos of Sheikh Nimr chanted “down with al-Saud dynasty,” referring to Saudi leaders and called them “stooges of America” as they marched toward the city center.

Similar protests were also held in smaller towns across the Muslim-majority region.

Sheikh Nimr was the most vocal critic of the Saudi rulers among the Shiite minority.

His execution sparked angry protests in the Qatif region in eastern Saudi Arabia, where demonstrators denounced the ruling Al Saud dynasty, and in the nearby Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain.

Relatives of Sheikh Nimr, reached by telephone, said authorities have informed them that the body had been buried “in a cemetery of Muslims” and would not be handed over to the family.