KARACHI, Jan 3: The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has demanded removal of top officials of police and Rangers for their failure to maintain law and order during three days after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

KCCI president Shamim Ahmed Shamsi and Executive Committee member Siraj Kassam Teli said at a press conference here on Thursday that the business community had suffered a loss of Rs80 billion on account of damage to property, looting of factories and warehouses, torching of vehicles and other acts of violence that had shaken the city.

They warned that if the law-enforcement hierarchy was not changed within a week, the KCCI could give a call for a strike.

They said the Sindh government had failed completely to maintain law and order. When mobs ruled the streets in several areas of Karachi from Thursday to Saturday (last week), police and Rangers were nowhere to be seen. Troops were on standby in the cantonment but the caretaker government did not bother to seek their help.

They said the loss of life, incidents of looting and lawlessness would have been 50 per cent less if police and Rangers had remained vigilant and performed their duty. They said the government should seriously consider deputing senior local officials of police and Rangers in Karachi instead of bringing officers from other parts of the country. Both the departments whose duty was to curb violence had let down not only the citizens but also the business community by leaving the city at the mercy of mobs and angry protesters, the KCCI leaders said. They said more than 1,500 trailers had been burnt down in interior Sindh and over 1,000 vehicles in Karachi.