Suicide bombing :- At least two Chinese nationals were killed and another injured in a powerful overnight bomb blast in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, officials from both countries confirmed Monday.

China condemned what it said was a “terrorist attack” and urged Pakistan to investigate it “thoroughly” and to punish the perpetrators.

A statement from the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad reported that the casualties occurred during an attack on a convoy carrying Chinese staff of the Port Qasim Electric Power Company outside Karachi airport before midnight on Sunday.

FILE - Port Qasim Power Plant, shown in theis 2019 photo, in the port city of Karachi is one of several coal-based production units China has built in Pakistan.

Television footage showed the explosion destroyed entirely or partially several vehicles. At least 10 Pakistani security personnel escorting the convoy were also injured, local police said.

"The Chinese embassy and consulates general in Pakistan strongly condemn this terrorist attack, express deep condolences to the innocent victims of both countries and sincere sympathies to the injured and families, and are making every effort to handle the aftermath together with the Pakistani side,” the statement said.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an insurgent group battling security forces in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, took responsibility for the attack. It asserted in a statement sent to journalists that a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the Chinese convoy departing the airport.

“This deplorable act of terrorism is an attack not only on Pakistan but also on the enduring friendship between Pakistan and China,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said. It resolved to bring “to justice those responsible for this cowardly attack, including the Majeed Brigade,” the statement said, referring to what BLA says is its unit of suicide bombers.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement he was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the “heinous act” and offered condolences to the Chinese leadership and families of the victims.

BLA, listed as a global terrorist group by the United States, has previously targeted Chinese nationals in the largest Pakistani city.

In April 2022, a BLA suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to her body near a van carrying Chinese teachers in Karachi, killing three of them and drawing strong condemnation from China.

Thousands of Chinese engineers and workers are in Pakistan, most associated with the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an infrastructure development project under Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative. The power plant in Karachi is one of several such units that China has built in different Pakistani regions.

BLA claims it is fighting for Balochistan's independence and denounces China’s economic corridor-related investments in the natural resources-rich province, including the Chinese-operated deep-water strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.

The insurgent group accuses Beijing of helping Islamabad exploit the region’s resources, charges both countries reject as baseless.

Pakistan has long blamed rival India for backing Baloch insurgents, a charge India denies.

Sunday’s bombing came as Pakistan prepares to host a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on October 15-16. Officials have said that Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang is scheduled to visit Islamabad for bilateral talks before the gathering.