Mob Psychology and the Sialkot Lynching Case

Last week, in the midst of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting, two brothers, Mughees and Muneeb were lynched by a mob in Sialkot - a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

The young men were mistaken for robbers and murdered in broad daylight.

Watch the gruesome Youtube clip of the lynching and you will wonder why no one tried to stop the demonic perpetrators.

What brought on the animalistic instinct of the executors and the crowds of wide-eyed onlookers, who crowded around the two bleeding, flailing bodies, as the young men were thrashed repeatedly, mercilessly?

As reported in a local daily English paper yesterday, one of the accused said that the DPO, Waqar Chohan, present on the scene goaded the accused into partaking in the violence by saying: "Go ahead and kill both of them. The police will claim responsibility for the killings and declare it a police encounter."

But even if Chohan didn't give any verbal approval, his presence during the lynching along with the other cops provided a silent nod of approval for the murderers to carry out their fury.

The police's indifferent presence owed to fueling the fire.

Acts of murder and violence carried out by wrathful mobs have been taking place for centuries. On both colossal and micro scales. Think the French Revolution, the brutality that followed through the partition of India and Pakistan during the population exchange, groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the neo-Nazi gangs, religious fundamentalist groups, mobs of ordinary citizens who raise bloody murder against their governments, against other religious groups, against minorities, and the list is endless.

Given this horrifying case, the question really is this; why in God's name did anyone not try to stop the atrocity from taking place? Why weren't Mughees and Muneeb rescued?

According to the Scottish journalist, Charles Mackay, in his book, 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds', said: "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."From a psychological perspective, men resorting to 'herd behaviour' begin replicating acts that the rest of the 'herd' is carrying out.

For an individual, being part of a mob, means having a sort of subconscious security that no harm will befall the individual since he is one with the mob.

Sigmund Freud's crowd behaviour theory sheds light on how when individuals act collectively as a group, their enthusiasm is increased, leading to a breakdown in individual thinking. This allows collective thinking and a collective approach to overrule. Therefore, the individual stands blinded. He is stripped naked of his self-awareness for those fleeting minutes or hours and this is when he allows himself to be 'led' by the herd.

Regarding mob psychology and crowd behaviour in psychology, the theories are numerous and intriguing. Once studied, the motives behind heinous acts of violence on innocent people by mobs can be better understood.

Regarding Mughees and Muneeb, justice must follow through swiftly.

Or else, tomorrow other victims like Mughees and Muneeb in Pakistan can fall prey to acts of violence in an already ruptured society.

Last week, in the midst of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting, two brothers, Mughees and Muneeb were lynched by a mob in Sialkot - a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The young men were mistaken for robbers and murdered in broad daylight.