The Finance Ministry issued a clarification on Wednesday, saying the two Chinese engineers killed in Karachi’s terrorist attack on Sunday night were not involved in independent power producer(IPP) talks with the government.

The statement comes a day after Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, in a televised address, said, “These were our brothers, these were those IPP engineers with whom Minister Leghari — Awais Leghari sahab— and I were negotiating with in terms of requesting them to reprofile debt for a bit and extend maturities so we can bring a reduction in tariff.”

Late on Sunday night, a massive explosion occurred on a road near Jinnah International Airport, killing a total of three people, including the two Chinese engineers, and injuring at least 11 others. The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan also confirmed that two of its nationals had died and another was injured, along with “some local casualties”.

In its statement, the embassy identified the nationals as “Chinese staff of the Port Qasim Electric Power Company (Private) Limited”.

Today’s clarification by the Finance Ministry said: “The government has been negotiating with IPPs, including the power plant for which both the Chinese engineers worked. However, the deceased engineers were not involved in the IPP talks.”

It added that “any impression created to this effect by media reports is misleading and has no basis”.

During his talk, Aurangzeb had said that “Chinese IPP had pledged to move forward with us, to create a win-win situation for both China and Pakistan.”

“These are the people who stepped forward to help Pakistan, their senior management also flew from Beijing to move the process forward.”

He also expressed his condolences over the loss of lives and hoped that the dialogue with the Chinese government would continue to move forward.

Previously, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said that the government was fully mobilised to identify those responsible for the incident as soon as possible.

“After identifying those responsible for the incident as soon as possible, they will be brought to justice. Protection of life and property of our Chinese brothers in Pakistan is our first priority.

“This heinous conspiracy to damage Pakistan-China relations will not be tolerated. I will personally supervise the investigation of this incident,” he was quoted as saying in a statement by PTV.

He said security arrangements for foreigners would be further bumped up.

Meanwhile, in cities such as Rawalpindi, police have stepped up security measures for Chinese and other foreigners working on development projects or engaged in business activities in the district after the attack.