Banned drugs seized by Saudi anti-narcotics police are shown in this file photo. Drug trafficking is punishable by death in the Kingdom. (SPA)

RIYADH: A Pakistani was executed on Wednesday for trafficking heroin hidden in his stomach into the kingdom, the interior ministry said, the latest in dozens of executions this year.

Mohammed Sadiq Hanif was arrested during his attempt to smuggle “a large amount” of heroin, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

The beheading on Wednesday in the eastern town of Alkhobar raises to 64 the number of death sentences carried out in the kingdom this year. He was the 5th Pakistani to be executed in the Kingdom for drug trafficking in a month.

The four earlier ones were executed last month, the latest being Mohammed Gul Rahma, who was beheaded in Qatif, also in the Eastern Province, on Oct. 24.

The government “is keen on combating narcotics due to their great harm to individuals and the society,” the Interior Ministry said.

 
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