Kashmir - Shock,Fury,Turmoil by Khalid Bashir Ahmad

This book reconstructs, for the first time, one of the most volatile periods in the post-1947 Kashmir sparked by the theft of Moi-e-Muqaddas, a strand of Holy Hair of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) from the Hazratbal Shrine. It is a stirring chronicle of a series of dramatic events that was to metamorphose into a mass agitation taking the region’s politics by storm. The meticulous work presents untold details about the accused and the elusive culprit of the crime.

The text brings alive in granular detail the massive disruption during the winter of 1963-64 when Kashmir’s streets exploded in anger as its people were engulfed by sadness and acute spiritual suffering the sacrilege had caused. It dives deep into behind-the-scenes political activities in Srinagar, New Delhi, Karachi, London, and New York, and offers a detailed analysis of a cascading international fallout from the incident that also drastically changed the political landscape of Jammu & Kashmir. The author diligently unpacks a serious diplomatic row that ensued between India and Pakistan, culminating in a full-fledged war between the bitter rivals.

Shining a bright light on the transformative period of Kashmir’s tumultuous history, this book is also an exclusive look into the workings of a polity in perpetual transition by the author who has been consistently invested in writing about some hidden or little-known aspects of Kashmir’s history. The work fills some gaps for interested academics, researchers, and an ever-increasing readership seeking authentic accounts on Kashmir.