RIYADH, Jan 30: Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani man who was arrested as he tried to smuggle drugs into the kingdom, the interior ministry said on Monday.

“Salman Khan Taj Mohammed, a Pakistani... was arrested as he was caught smuggling a large amount of heroin” into the country, the ministry said in a statement.

He was interrogated and convicted of drug smuggling, a crime punishable by death according to Saudi law.

The man was beheaded in Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia, bringing to five the number of Saudi executions carried out so far in 2012.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights voiced alarm this month at the almost three-fold increase in executions in Saudi Arabia last year.

Amnesty International has said the kingdom executed 79 people last year. In 2010, 27 people were executed, according to the UN, citing a report by the Human Rights Watch.—AFP