A police official was killed and another was injured when a foreigner, believed to be an Uzbek national, detonated explosives tied around his body when the police tried to search him in the Domail area in Bannu, police said on Sunday. “The police surrounded the Persian-speaking man’s car, a private taxi, when he refused a body search and fired at a constable deployed at a check post on the Kohat-Bannu road,” Bannu DIG Abid Ali told reporters. Ali said that platoon commander Ahmad Khan attempted to remove the explosives fixed around the suspect’s body when he exploded. Khan was seriously injured in the explosion and later died. Police arrested the taxi driver who was driving the suspected militant from Kohat to Bannu – the home district of NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani – Ali said. The Bannu DIG said that police were informed that some militants would attempt to smuggle explosives from Kohat to Bannu following which three pickets were set up at the entry points of the district. He said that police tried to check a private taxi entering Bannu from Domail when the Persian-speaking foreigner travelling in the car refused a body search, adding that when police insisted, the foreigner opened fire on a constable and ran away from the car. Ali said that the police chased the suspect and managed to get a hold of him after a kilometre. He added that platoon commander Ahmad Khan tried to remove the explosives from the suspect’s body when he blew himself up.