KABUL: Taliban militants executed five civilians near Kabul for working with Nato troops, authorities said on Sunday, the latest in a series of militant activities in villages around the capital.

The news of the incident in Wardak province’s Jalrez district, 40km south of Kabul, came a day after the insurgents publicly lashed two Afghan men and just weeks after the public execution of a woman for adultery.

In Jalrez, the militants captured six Afghans returning home from work at a Nato base. The bodies of five of them were found on Sunday, all booby-trapped with explosives, a statement from the provincial governor's office said.

Their hands were tied behind their backs, a witness said.

The sixth man fled his captors, the statement added, blaming the killings on the Taliban.

The militants are particularly active across the southern and eastern provinces, and appear to have stepped up efforts to impose their version of Shariah laws.

On Saturday, Taliban insurgents whipped two men 40 times in public in a village south of Kabul after accusing them of attempting to kidnap a young boy for ransom.—AFP