SWAT, Oct 18: A militant was killed and eight others were injured when their vehicle fell off a bridge at Wanay in Matta tehsil here on Thursday.

The man has been identified as Muhammad Zaheer, a former PAF serviceman-turned-militant, who was recently released on bail by an anti-terrorism court.

The injured were taken to the Matta tehsil headquarters hospital.

According to witnesses, local militants in large numbers reached the hospital and besieged it, not allowing anyone to enter. Zaheer was arrested on Dec 3, 2004, after he had been injured while trying to rob a bank in Chapriyal, Matta Tehsil. He was taken away from a military hospital in Rawalpindi by an intelligence agency.

He had been missing for 18 months and after his brother filed a habeas corpus petition in the Peshawar High Court last year, the intelligence agency handed him over to police in Swat.

Police kept him in Timergarah and Saidu Sharif prisons for about a year in connection with the bank robbery case which was being heard by an anti-terrorism court.