RIYADH: Saudi authorities beheaded a Pakistani man Wednesday in the eastern Qatif province after he was convicted of drug trafficking in the kingdom, the interior ministry announced.

Jaafar Ghulam Ali was “arrested as he was smuggling a large amount of heroin,” said the ministry statement quoted by the official SPA news agency.

His beheading brings to 71 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, according to an AFP count.

In 2012, the conservative Muslim kingdom carried out 76 executions, according to a tally based on official figures. Human Rights Watch put the number at 69.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the oil-rich Gulf state's strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.