KABUL, Afghanistan  Policemen killed an Afghan senator and his driver in the country’s north early on Wednesday after their car failed to stop at a checkpoint, according to a statement by the Ministry of Interior, which said it had sent a high-level delegation to look into the case.

The senator, Mohammed Younus, was in an area where fighting had recently gone on and tensions were still high, leading the police to conclude that if a driver failed to heed their warnings, the passengers were likely to be enemies, officials said.

The senator encountered the checkpoint on a small road in Baghlan Province about 2:30 a.m., after leaving a social gathering in a remote village, according to Barak Akbar Barakzai, the provincial governor. The senator’s four-wheel-drive vehicle sped through despite signals to stop, Mr. Barakzai said, and the police, worried that the car might be carrying some of the insurgents they had fought hours earlier, radioed the next checkpoint about the oncoming vehicle. When the car failed to stop there, the police opened fire, killing the senator and driver and wounding a bodyguard.

“We had carried out a clearance operation yesterday in central Baghlan district of the province against the militants, in which four policemen and more than 10 armed militants were killed,” Mr. Barakzai said. “So last night we had intelligence indicating opposition forces would attack police checkpoints on the main highway. So we set up a few ambushes along the main highway to disrupt militant activity and hunt down those who want to transport the wounded out of the province to safe havens.”