1963 Hazratbal Shrine theft

The Hazratbal Shrine in 2010

The relic was brought to India in 1635 by Syed Abdullah. It was then passed through his son Syed Hamid to a Kashmiri businessman named Nooruddin. In the late 17th century, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb imprisoned Nooruddin and seized the relic, moving it to the Sufi tomb in Ajmer. Aurangzeb returned the relic in 1700 after Nooruddin had died. The relic was preserved by his descendants and kept in a place that later became the Hazratbal Shrine.[1]

On 27 December 1963, news broke out that the holy relic was stolen from the shrine. Around 50,000 people carrying black flags demonstrated in front of the shrine.[2] According to The Times of India, the Srinagar superintendent of police said that he believed that the theft had occurred around 2 am when the custodians of the shrine were sleeping.[2]

The next day, the Chief Minister of the state, Khwaja Shams-ud-Din, reached the shrine and announced an award of 100,000 rupees for providing information regarding the theft. On 29 December, a curfew was imposed and police arrested the Congress leader Mohammad Shafi Qureshi. To investigate the theft, on 31 December, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent the head of the Central Bureau of Investigation, B. N. Mullick, to Kashmir.[2] Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq set up the Sacred Relic Action Committee, of which he was the president.[3]

On 4 January 1964, the relic was recovered, and the Sadr-i-Riyasat Karan Singh organised prayers at a Hindu temple to help dispel communal tension.[4] The relic was inspected and identified by Sayyid Meerak Shah Kashani as being genuine. Shah Kashani said he had seen the relic many times and could easily identify it.[5]

Sayyid Meerak recited a poem:[5]

When Mullick informed Nehru about the recovery, Nehru said to Mullick that "you have saved Kashmir for India". In his memoirs, Mullick claims that the information about the investigation was not disclosed. The Home Minister of India, Gulzarilal Nanda, also said in the parliament that the thieves "shall be identified".[6]

On 17 January 1964, he named the three people who were arrested for the theft. They included three Kashmiri Muslims namely, Abdul Rahim Bandey, Abdul Rashid and Kadir Butt. The latter was believed to have affiliations with the Pakistan, Nanda said.

Identification by its caretakers and other investigation made by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir (law and order), special identification team says its authenticity is indeed original. Post identification, a public deedar (view) of the Holy relic was organized on 6 February coinciding with the anniversary of martyrdom of the fourth Caliph of Islam, Ali bin Abu Talib.[7][8]

The incident triggered riots and ethnic cleansing of Hindus in East Pakistan.[9] Hundreds of thousands of Hindu refugees poured into India between December 1963 and February 1964 as a result of the violence.[10] The stories of atrocities told by these refugees caused violence and rioting against Muslims in Calcutta in the Indian state of West Bengal.[6][9] Thousands of Christian tribals were also evicted later from East Pakistan and arrived in India as refugees.[9]

A fictionalized version of the incident is the subject of Salman Rushdie's short story "The Prophet's Hair" (1981).