An Indian drug smuggler on Thursday was executed in the Indonesian city of Medan on Sumatra Island by a police firing squad.
 
The execution of Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey was the first death sentence carried out in Indonesia since 2001.

It came despite pleas for clemency by the Indian Embassy and London-based rights group Amnesty International, who had complained his trial fell short of international standards of fairness.

"Ayodhya was shot in the heart from a distance of 10 metres," state news agency Antara quoted north Sumatra prosecutor chief Sudibyo Saleh as saying.

He was given an Islamic burial in the city shortly after the execution, the report said.

Ayodhya was arrested along with two Thai nationals in Medan in 1994 after airport officials confiscated 12 kilogrammes of heroin. All three were sentenced to death in 1996. The two Thai nationals remain on death row.

There are at least 65 people on death row in Indonesia. Many are nationals of African and Asian countries sentenced over drug offences.

Agencies