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June 27

Requesting help in ascertaining date of an incidence

Human behaviour throws lot many surprises. According to this article Hawkes Bay case, it seems in 1983 some 38 people walked into the sea @ Karachi expecting some miracle. It seems to be largely IP written article and some refs seem to be fiction related. It does not mention date too. Can some one help ascertaining the date and confirming that by chance some fiction is not being added in to the article.

I am just asking here to save my own time, my self being focussed in some other tasks.

On side note I do have Draft:Irrational beliefs may be some one feels interested in expanding that too.

Thanks, Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 11:41, 27 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I found this but no precise date. Alansplodge (talk) 13:26, 27 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Journal paper linked in the External links section looks like a reliable source, though I myself cannot access the full text. The reason for some of the references being 'fiction-related' is because Salman Rushdie mentioned the incident in a novel, which generated discussions of it. News reports are most likely to have appeared in the Pakistani press, which might usefully be searched by one conversant in its languages.

Comparisons might be made with the Heaven's Gate and Jonestown massacre incidents. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.201.73.76 (talk) 13:39, 27 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If you can get a "trial" subscription to Newspapers.com, you can search for ["hawkes bay" miracle], where you'll find several articles from Feb 25, 1983, all repeating the same AP report. The previous day, a family of 38 went to sea in large tin boxes, expecting to sail to Karbala in Iraq. They thought God would protect them from the rough waters. They thought wrong. The boxes foundered on the rocks and bodies started washing ashore. At the time of the report, there were 17 survivors, 13 known dead, and 8 missing. --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:03, 27 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Although the source linked to as an external link gives a rather detailed account, it is not explicitly more precise than “late February, 1983". However, I can piece the following together:

Naseem announced that she had been visited by a revelation on 18 February 1981.
Exactly to the day two years after the first communication began [which must be 18 February 1983], Naseem asked whether the believers would plunge into the sea as an expression of their faith.
The believers immediately agreed. There was no debate, no vacillation.
They hired trucks to take them to Karachi.
They arrived in Karachi on the third day and made their way to Hawkes Bay.
The operation had begun in the late hours of the night and was over by the early morning.

Assuming that the believers managed to hire trucks the same day Naseem asked the fateful question, operation Plunge took place in the night of 20 to 21 February 1983. It cannot have been earlier.

Apparently, the incident has been reported on at the time in Dawn. There is a print book about the incident, Hawkes Bay incident : a psycho-social case study.^[1] --Lambiam 15:56, 27 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]