A few months before the theft of the Holy relic from Hazratbal, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad had resigned from the premiership but continued to govern indirectly by installing his loyalist, Shamsuddin, as his successor.
When a massive crowd gathered at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, braving heavy snowfall to protest the theft of the Holy Relic, Bakshi’s influential relative, Bakshi Abdul Rashid, appeared with his associates. He urged the demonstrators to disperse and refrain from making noise.
However, his security guard mocked the protestors’ poverty, sarcastically asking, “Have you received your government rations yet?”
This remark enraged a protestor, who, in a fit of anger, hurled his Kangri (a traditional Kashmiri earthen fire pot) at Bakshi Abdul Rashid and his guard. Abdul Rashid barely managed to escape and sought refuge in a nearby hotel, but his associates were beaten up, and their vehicle was set on fire.
A few steps away, another enraged mob torched two cinemas and a hotel, which belonged to the Bakshi family. Amid the chaos, the notorious Special Police headquarters was also set ablaze.
The part of the police station housing the office of Sheikh Ghulam Qadir Gandarbali, an unpopular senior police officer, was reduced to ashes. In response, SP Sheikh Aslam ordered his forces to open fire on the crowd, resulting in the deaths of three people.
Following this unexpected attack, Bakshi’s supporters fell silent. A sarcastic phrase began making rounds: “A single Kangri brought down the Gandarbali regime.” This was a scathing comment on the long years of repression under Bakshi’s rule, imposed at New Delhi’s behest, which had crushed the people under the weight of police brutality and government excesses.
As the situation deteriorated in Srinagar, the army was called in. A massive procession of nearly 20,000 furious protestors marched from Dal Gate towards Budshah Chowk. The military took positions, ready to open fire.
However, the police chief L.D. Thakur, managed to defuse the crisis. The protestors also pledged not to resort to violence and to remain peaceful. The Inspector General of Police searched for the duty magistrate, and upon failing to locate him, ordered his immediate arrest.
According to police officer Wali Shah, an eyewitness to the events, it was Thakur’s foresight that prevented the city from drowning in blood; otherwise, the situation would have spiralled further out of control.
Meanwhile, in New Delhi, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was deeply troubled. He believed that the incident had put India’s position in Kashmir under grave threat.
In his words, “Everything we have done in Kashmir over the past fifteen years is at risk of being undone by this single incident.” Remarkably, despite the heightened emotions during the movement for the Holy Relic, there was no communal strife in Kashmir itself.
However, its repercussions were felt as far away as East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and then in West Bengal. In the districts of Khulna and Jessore, the Hindu minority was attacked, triggering retaliatory violence against Muslims in Calcutta, Jamshedpur, and Rourkela.
On 4 January 1964, the government announced the recovery of the Holy Relic, hoping that this would calm tensions. However, the movement intensified as the people demanded authentication of the relic and the identification of those responsible for the theft.
Initially, the government hesitated to have the relic authenticated by The Action Committee but ultimately gave in to public pressure. The protests now shifted their focus to the long-standing demand for a plebiscite under UN supervision.
That same day, a massive demonstration was held at Lal Chowk, where Molvi Mohammad Saeed Masoodi demanded the release of Sheikh Abdullah. The decade-long political deadlock seemed to be breaking, and despite the harsh winter, it felt as though spring had arrived in Kashmir — though the world remained blind and deaf to these developments.
Meanwhile, tensions in the valley were at an all-time high. Across the border, in Muzaffarabad and Rawalpindi, Kashmiri leaders were escalating the situation. On 2 February 1964, they urged Pakistan to terminate the ceasefire agreement with India and called on the Kashmir Liberation Council to immediately take steps to cross the Line of Control.
At a Jammu & Kashmir Muslim Conference meeting, Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas appealed to the Pakistani government to withdraw from the ceasefire agreement and allow Kashmiris to cross the border to fight alongside their Muslim brethren.
The conference’s president, K.H. Khurshid, urged Kashmiris to prepare for the final battle for freedom and announced the establishment of a Mujahid Fund to support those disabled during the struggle.
On 8 February 1964, Khurshid further demanded that Pakistan retract all commitments made to the United Nations. These declarations, along with open calls for breaching the ceasefire line, set the stage for a crisis that would eventually escalate into a full-blown conflict in August 1965, when thousands of armed infiltrators were sent into Jammu & Kashmir. Within a month, this culminated in a full-scale war between India and Pakistan.
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