RIYADH: Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani national on Wednesday in the holy city of Medina after convicting him of drug smuggling, the interior ministry said.

Bashir Khamis Ahmad was found guilty of trying to smuggle large quantities of heroin into the kingdom, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

The beheading brings to 60 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on official reports.

Amnesty International says 79 people were put to death in the Gulf kingdom last year.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under its strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.