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

Jilani Khan, deputy police chief of Zabul, said on Wednesday 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 on Wednesday 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 in the runup to an Oct. 9 election which the incumbent is widely expected to win.

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.

According to officials, he was the most senior Taliban member held by Karzai's government, installed in power after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.

MESSAGES OF SUPPORT

Chief Justice Mawlavi Fazl Hadi Shinwari told Reuters that after Qalamuddin's release, several hundred religious and tribal figures from Logar sent a message to Kabul to voice support for Karzai's U.S.-backed government.

Karzai is one of 18 candidates running for office.

Qalamuddin served as the Taliban's deputy minister and caretaker of the feared Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, also known as the religious police.

The ministry was notorious for publicly punishing anyone violating the Taliban's harsh interpretation of Islam during it's five-year reign in Kabul from 1996.

It patrolled the streets and lashed or imprisoned women not obeying the Taliban's order to wear all-enveloping burqas when venturing outdoors, men with beards shorter than the required length and anybody listening to music or watching videos.

Taliban militants and their allies have termed the October election a sham and have vowed to disrupt it with violence.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the last year, largely in southern and eastern areas, in violence mostly linked to the Taliban and other Islamic militants including al Qaeda.

Karzai twice postponed elections and voter registration has been below the national average in the south and east, partly due to security concerns.

U.S.-led troops toppled the Taliban as punishment for refusing to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, blamed for masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

There are around 18,000 U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan hunting militants as well as 8,000 NATO-led peacekeepers mainly stationed in Kabul and a few northern provinces. (Additional reporting by Mirwais Afghan)