Afghan Taliban deny five executions

KABUL – Taliban officials have denied beheading five Afghans in the rugged Zabul province bordering Pakistan.

Jilani Khan, deputy police chief of Zabul, said yesterday Taliban militants beheaded five officials on Monday and left a message by the corpses saying: “Unfortunately, we don’t have prison and that’s why we have tried these people in this manner.” But Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi denied responsibility, saying in a satellite telephone call yesterday that it was not their style.”We do kill criminals, but we don’t do beheadings,” he said.Separately, president Hamid Karzai has released a prominent figure from the hardline Islamic militia, remnants of which are waging a bloody insurgency.Karzai, a member of Afghanistan’s largest Pashtun clan, from which the Taliban drew its support before being ousted in 2001, has offered amnesty to moderate members of the movement with no blood on their hands.On Tuesday, Mawlavi Qalamuddin, a senior member of the Taliban’s notorious religious police, was released after spending more than six months in jail in Kabul following his arrest in his native province of Logar, south of the capital, an official said.- Nampa-ReutersBut Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi denied responsibility, saying in a satellite telephone call yesterday that it was not their style.”We do kill criminals, but we don’t do beheadings,” he said.Separately, president Hamid Karzai has released a prominent figure from the hardline Islamic militia, remnants of which are waging a bloody insurgency.Karzai, a member of Afghanistan’s largest Pashtun clan, from which the Taliban drew its support before being ousted in 2001, has offered amnesty to moderate members of the movement with no blood on their hands.On Tuesday, Mawlavi Qalamuddin, a senior member of the Taliban’s notorious religious police, was released after spending more than six months in jail in Kabul following his arrest in his native province of Logar, south of the capital, an official said.- Nampa-Reuters