A Jewish activist Fishel Benkhald in Pakistan was savagely beaten by a Muslim mob during debate on Wednesday – and then arrested and roughed up again by police.
Benkhald, a minority right activist leading a one-man campaign to preserve the old Jewish cemetery in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi – has been a vocal activist for minority rights in the country, which is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim and where minorities such as Christians, Hindus and non-Sunni Muslims are routinely persecuted.
According to a report publish in Arutz Sheva on Thursday, Benkhald – the son of a Muslim father and a Jewish mother, but who identifies as Jewish – told how he had agreed to a face-to-face debate with a Muslim Pakistani man after a discussion on the topic of minority rights on Twitter.
“I was debating over Twitter with a young educated Pakistani Muslim that non-Muslim Pakistanis should be allowed in theory to be elected president according to our constitution,” the discussion was purely theoretical, he noted, given that non-Muslims account for only around 3% of the Pakistani population.
After a back-and-forth “I proposed to debate face to face,” said Benkhald. “He asked for me for my cell phone number and I gave it to him.”
The two agreed to continue a friendly discussion at a restaurant in Karachi. But when he got there, Benkhald soon found himself ambushed.
Blindfolded and cuffed, he was then handed over to Pakistan’s Rangers paramilitary force, who continued questioning him about his ethnic origins, and going through his social media pages after demanding his passwords.
“They beat me, but not much,” claims Benkhald, and accused him of being a spy for either Israel, the US or India.