KARACHI. Oct 9: A rocket attack today devastated the Karachi office of the Sindh provincial Chief Minister in a new escalation of the ethnic violence in Pakistan's largest city, officials said, report AFP. AP.

Five rockets were fired from a car at the Sindh provincial government building. At least seven people were injured but Chief Minister Abdullah Shah was not in the building at the time of the attack around midday.

Three offices in the eight-

storey building, including that of the chief minister, were hit and badly damaged by the rockets

Thousands of panic-stricken employees poured out of several government offices in the vicinity after the shoulder-fired rockets slammed into the Secretariat building.

Eyewitnesses said the fifth and seventh stories of the building were on fire.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosions but policemen at the scene blamed members

of the largest faction of a militant opposition group, the Mohajlr Qauml Movement.

Police said one rocket destroyed the office of provincial Health Minister Shamlm Ahmed. He wasn't In the building. The first rocket hit the office of Planning Minister Nisar Khoro causing extensive damage. He too was out of the building.

The building, located in the heart of Karachi, is one of the best protected government buildings in the city.

"This building is crowded with police. They are all

around it." said Jameel Yusuf, chairman of the citizens-liai-son committee, established in 1989 to help police curb a runaway crime rate.

"Everyone is going to feel damn insecure now. If you can hit that building you can hit anything,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Eyewitnesses said an unknown number of gunmen fired at the government office building from a narrow street that runs along the rear of the building.

They managed to escape.