Islamabad: Rioting sparked by the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has led to the deaths of 40 people, the government said on Saturday.

A senior official also said 174 bank branches, 158 offices, 765 shops and 370 vehicles had been destroyed in arson attacks.

The interior ministry spokesman accounted for the casualties and the material damage during a media briefing at around the same time as President Pervez Musharraf chaired a high-level meeting and ordered tough action against extremists elements.

The spokesman, retired brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, said 53 people had been injured in the mayhem that followed Bhutto's assassination on Thursday after an election rally in Rawalpindi near here.

Cheema said some 26 bank buildings and 23 offices and 61 vehicles had been destroyed by mobs in the slain leader's home province of Sindh alone. Some 71 train coaches and 18 railway stations had been burnt down by miscreants, who took advantage of the situation amid protests by Bhutto supporters, he said.

Musharraf and caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro co-chaired the high-level meeting held at the president's camp office in Rawalpindi.

Deterrent punishment

According to an official report, Soomro directed authorities to apprehend and prosecute miscreants under the anti-terrorism law to send across a strong deterrent message.

Musharraf said at the meeting that the entire nation was in mourning and that its sympathies were with the bereaved family and workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

He said miscreants and anti-social elements could not be allowed to destabilise the lives of ordinary citizens under the cover of protests. The meeting was attended by the ministers of information and interior, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, heads of security agencies and other senior officials.

Musharraf spoke strongly against reported incidents of loot and plunder and directed that those responsible be "dealt with firmly and all measures be taken to ensure safety and security of the people".

The army has been deployed in Sindh to aid the civil administration and the interior ministry spokesman said yesterday that the situation across the country had remained "satisfactory", with only some minor incidents reported from some places.

Meanwhile, shops remained under lock and key, weddings were cancelled and daily life was on hold for tens of millions of people as the nation mourned Benazir Bhutto.

On the second day of official mourning, most people were unable to buy food or petrol, with almost all shops, fuel stations, banks and offices remaining closed.

The streets of the country's main cities - Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar - were largely empty and, in many places, there was evidence of the unrest that has claimed nearly 40 lives since Bhutto's killing.

Stick-wielding gangs roamed the deserted highways of Karachi, the country's normally teeming economic hub of 12 million people, trying to stop anyone who ventured out of the house.

"Karachi was never so quiet, so sad and so scary," said Shahana Rehmat, a housewife. "We are under virtual house arrest and about to run out of fresh food and kitchen supplies."

"I have not found anything to eat since Friday," said labourer Janat Khan as he sat on the side of a litter-strewn road in the port city.

Aqib Khan, an IT professional from Islamabad, said he started a 19-hour drive to Karachi for his holidays on Thursday and arrived the following day to scenes of chaos.

"As I entered the city, we heard gunfire, saw looting and mobs ransacking public property," he said. "There is very little fuel left in my car and I don't think that I will be able to get out in the next couple of days."

Pakistan's largest private charity, the Edhi Foundation, said they too were victims of the chaos.

"They've smashed up our ambulances," an official from the charity said. "And we don't have any fuel."

In Peshawar, more than 3,000 people chanting slogans against President Pervez Musharraf and wearing black armbands tried to smash up shops but were beaten back by police.

- With inputs from agencies