KABUL, July 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Taliban militants executed an Afghan chieftain on charge of spying for US military in the insurgency-plague Zabul province in south Afghanistan, an official in Zabul said Saturday.

    "Malik Agha, a chieftain in Atghar district, was abducted Friday after Friday's congregation and his body hanged up on a tree was found this morning," Gul Habib, the district chief of Atghar, told Xinhua.

    Taliban has claimed responsibility for the incident and the group's spokesman Mawlawi Abdul Latif Hakimi said that the 'Mjahideen or holy warriors have punished Malik Agha for spying to Americans."

    In the meantime, spokesman of the Interior Ministry Dad Mohammad Rasa in talks with Xinhua rejected Taliban's claim and said "no one was killed or kidnapped in Zabul over the past two days."

    Taliban's remnants who vowed to derail the upcoming Sept. 18 parliamentary polls have intensified their militancy over the past three months.

    The group almost on a similar charge assassinated a pro-government cleric in the neighboring Helmand province early last week. Enditem