Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Saudi Arabia executed eight Bangladeshi workers in the capital Riyadh on Friday.

The migrant workers, who were beheaded in public, were sentenced to death for the alleged murder of an Egyptian man in April 2007, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report.

The executed are Ma’mun Abdul Mannan, Faruq Jamal, Sumon Miah, Mohammed Sumon, Shafiq al-Islam, Mas’ud Shamsul Haque, Abu al-Hussain Ahmed and Mutir al-Rahman.

According to reports, the Egyptian man was killed during a clash between the Bangladeshi workers and a group of men who allegedly were stealing electric cable from a building complex where the Bangladeshis worked.

Three other Bangladeshis were sentenced to prison terms and flogging for the murder.

“Since the end of the Holy month of Ramadan, executions have resumed in Saudi Arabia at an alarming rate,” the Amnesty International said, adding that the beheadings bring the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year to at least 58, more than double than the 2010 figures. Twenty of those executed in 2011 were foreign nationals.

Many of those executed in Saudi Arabia in recent years have been foreign nationals, mostly migrant workers from poor and developing countries, according to Amnesty International.

At least 158 people, including 76 foreign nationals, were executed by the Saudi Arabian authorities in 2007. In 2008 some 102 people, including almost 40 foreign nationals, were executed.

In 2009, at least 69 people are known to have been executed, including 19 foreign nationals and in 2010, at least 27 people were executed including six foreign nationals, the Amnesty International added.

BBN/SSR/AD-08Oct11-1:40 pm (BST)