Nazeer Ahmed Arijo

According to a Scottish journalist, "Men think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds,while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one ". Mob mentality can be best described as an extra-judicial forum  ,which starts demonizing, dehumanizing and ultimately punishing the accused/victim as per mood of the mob.Insanity of the herd is deeply weaved into pschye of the sociey. After a brief lull ,it rears its ulgy head to devour a man. Very recently , a 14 years old child Rehan ,was lynched to death by the mob in Bahadurabad,Karachi .It , undoubtedly ,does demonstrate the disregard of rule of law.

The details are higly distressing. According to the cofessional statement of the main perpetrator of Bahdurabad lynching case ,Rehan accompanied by two others had entered his house with the intent of theft .They -the family tried to catch them .The three jumped from the three story -building ,Rehan was overpowered and caught while the two others fled the scene.

Rehan’s ordeal began: he was undressed and tied to iron grilĺ subsequently subjected to violence by owner of the house ,Daniyal and his relative Zubair and other residents for over two hours .Imagine the scale of inner-imptiness that the perpetrators made video of the boy subjected to vigilantism .None came to rescue him;those over two dozen people who came either became partners in crime or became stony-hearted onlookers. After having noticed the victim slipping into critical condtiom, the Rangers was called in who rushed the boy to hospital, but he succumbed to injuries .

In the video images of violence made by Rehan’s torturers uploaded on various social networking sites, ,one could read a white print on the victim’s black T-shirt which reads”Apna time aayega ” My time will come .His time never came .Rehan’s life ended before it had begun . It is both disappointing and disturbing to note that mob- mentality is on the rise . This should be an eye opener for those at the helm of country’s affairs. Very recently ,Irshad Ranjhani was ruthlessly gunned down in Karachi by the mob mentality on the charges of intended robbery .

And who can forget the heart-wrenching Sialkot lyching of August ,2010 of the two teenaged brothers Mughees and Muneeb on allegation of theft? .The two were tortured ,killed and paraded in the the town by the mob.

And the lynching of Mashal Khan- a diligent young student, by his fellow students on allegations of blasphemy at Mardan Univesity in 2017; is an other grim reminder of deep- rooted mob mentality operating in our sociey.

A logical question that arises is :What is the reason behind mob”justice”?There are multidimensional factors at play . Psychologically speaking ,Cristen Polito who writes on behavioural wealth ,family dynamics, Sustainability and wells ,is of the opinion that "humans have a tendency to immitate one an others’s behaviour .We end up processing beliefs and acting out in ways which we would have never otherwise done or considered independently” . Psychologists call this occurrence as mob mentality, also called as herd mentality.”It describes how how humans adopt behaviours, buy merchandise ,and allow trends based on their circle of influence .

It explains how one’s point of view can be easily altered by those around them” . Others factors being utter disillusionment with state and its judicial system, societal acknowledgment of herd mentality as bravery and a route to uproot crime and criminals ,legal loopholes to favour the both the accused or perpetrators because of their material status.Nevertheless, despite of structural faultlines ,mob’justice ‘ can not be should not allowed to operate like this.

Malaise of mob mentality is deeper than imagined in this state of Pakistan..There exists an institutionalised mob justice ,too.There are law enforcement agencies which are operating as mob courts ; extra-judicial actions and extra-judicial killings like half -fry and full fry , fake enounters and enforced disappearence by the police and other law enforcement agencies respectively are common.This gives some sort of validaton to mob mentality .

Even if one is caught -red- handed in terms of theft or other crimes ,thieves and criminals can not be physically elimated like this .It is the judiciary that has to decide about the amount of punishment after following due process of law If mob and certain institutions operate like this ,then judicial coutrs should be closed .Fair trial is a fundamental right of any accused or chargesheeted enshrined in the constitution of Pakistan. Thus,public lynching and other ectra judicial actions are violation of national and international laws that are calling for transparent trial.

We are a democratic country with functioning constitution; what is the use of democracy when laws are disobeyed and constitutional commitments flouted?
Who will rein the mob mentality when those institutions entrusted to ensuring accountability and justice are involved in extra judicial actions ?With those five perpetrators of Bahdurabad lynching case , taken into custody, one hopes the family would get justice. It is a muder case that falls under 302 PPC ,punishable to hanging to death or life -imprisonment .ATC sections can be invoked given the torture of the victim as it caused harassment in public.

Given the victim’s family hailing from humble background, there is likelihood of out of court patch -up because of monetary considerations, then the state must follow the precedent set in Shahruhk Jatoi versus state case by the supreme of Pakistan as both murder of the boy and video-tapped torture images have created a harassment in society . Taking the law into one’shands is a crime ,those involved must be punished dejure. What the society needs to realize is that there has to be empathy to deal with the accused, even criminals.

The philosophical crime writer and the author of "the Godfather” Gianrico Carofiglio is of the opinion that one must have empathy, even for for the worst criminals.According to Carofiglio, you have to have empathy. ” You must be able to use this even with the worst criminals, to see the world through their eyes .This is not sympathy; they are two different words.

Reviving dead rule of law and ensuring implementation of democratic principles calls fo challenging those who challenge the writ of the state whether insanity of the herd or institutional insanity.Time to act against mob mentality and institutional insanity.

Will the state turn the corner by holding perpetrators of this recent act of violence to account thus giving a strong message that there is no place for mob justice in Naya Pakistan?. Only time will tell.