By Terry Friel

KABUL, April 11 (Reuters) - Ajmal Naqshbandi came home on Wednesday to his wife, a shed-full of weeping, wailing women and a strangely silent street.

Hundreds turned out to pray in the street and see the 24-year-old journalist's coffin lowered into the sun-baked dirt of a small hilltop graveyard near his home.

He was beheaded by the Taliban on Sunday after the Afghan government refused to free several insurgents, although it swapped five two weeks ago for the Italian reporter he was working for.

"For a foreigner, they can release five Taliban," said his weeping 14-year-old brother-in-law, Mussadaq. "For a local and a Muslim, they can't release any."

La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Naqshbandi and driver Sayed Agha were kidnapped in early March on a remote road in lawless Helmand province -- the opium capital of the world's biggest producer and an area most foreigners consider a no-go zone.

Mastrogiacomo was freed about two weeks later after Agha was beheaded in front of him in what most analysts see as a move to pressure the Italian government.

"When Ajmal was arrested by the Taliban, I cried so much," said his 20-year-old cousin, Humayun. "Now we have lost him.

"If the government had released some Taliban, he would be here today," he added before the simple plywood coffin draped in green and black arrived at Naqshbandi's home for a brief ceremony before his burial.

The busy street was closed briefly as male mourners washed their hands with dust and prayed silently after shouts of "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).

His wife of one year was too distraught to talk.

Security experts and Afghan officials have said the Mastrogiacomo deal -- widely criticised in Italy and Afghanistan -- was sure to encourage the Taliban to take more foreigners.

The insurgents are holding two French aid workers -- a man and a woman -- and three Afghan companions captured in Nimroz province between Iran and Helmand.

They are also holding five Afghan health workers.

Italian ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi was at the airport when Naqshbandi's body was flown in from southern Afghanistan.

"My feeling is of great sorrow as it is the feeling of all Italians because in my country there was definitely a big emotion for the terrible fate of Mr Ajmal," Sequi told reporters.

"So my Prime Minister has written a personal letter to the family to express the condolences of the government of Italy and the people of Italy."

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