Syed Mir Qasim suddenly died in an ambulance near India Gate in New Delhi on 12 December 2004 at the age of 83, thirty-three years to the date from when he became Chief Minister in 1971. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried in the remote village of his birth, Dooru in Kashmir. Notably, given the general level of violent upheaval in Kashmir, his funeral was attended by thousands without incident.