Operation Pawan

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Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

Operation Pawan was the code name assigned to the operation by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to take control of Jaffna from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), better known as the Tamil Tigers, in late 1987 to enforce the disarmament of the LTTE as a part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.

Indian support

In brutal fighting lasting about three weeks, the IPKF took control of the Jaffna Peninsula from the LTTE, something that the Sri Lankan Army had tried but failed to do. Supported by Indian Army tanks, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery, the IPKF routed the LTTE at the cost of 214 soldiers and officers.

Criticism

India's foreign intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing trained the LTTE to keep a check on Sri Lanka, which had helped Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani War by allowing Pakistani ships to refuel at Sri Lankan ports. When Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in 1987 to restore normalcy in the region, the disastrous efforts of the IPKF was blamed on the lack of co-ordination between the IPKF and RAW. Its most obvious manifestation was the Heliborne assault on LTTE HQ in the Jaffna University campus in the opening stages of Operation Pawan. The site was chosen without any consultation with the RAW and the dropping paratroopers became easy targets for the LTTE, and a number of Indian soldiers were killed.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated

Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated as a fallout of Operation Pawan by LTTE. The decision to send the IPKF in Sri Lanka was taken by then Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, who held office until 1989. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at a rally at Sriperumbudur on 21 May 1991, while he was campaigning for re-election during the 1991 Indian General Election, by a LTTE suicide bomber named Dhanu.

Indian Peace Keeping Force

Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan military.[1]

Casualties: In December 1999, Defence Minister George Fernandes disclosed the IPKF had suffered 1,165 personnel killed in action with 3,009 others wounded.[2] The LTTE casualties are not known.

War Memorial

The Sri Lankan government had mooted the idea of a war memorial to those soldiers of the IPKF who lost their lives during the peacekeeping mission, in the early Nineties during President Premadasa's rule. The memorial was finally constructed in Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte [3] on the outskirts of Colombo in 2008. The names of the 1200 soldiers who died are inscribed on black marble. The first official memorial service was held on 15 August 2010 when the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Ashok Kantha, laid a wreath to honour the dead. Later in 2014, India constructed a war memorial at Bhopal to honour the IPKF.[4]

A renovated memorial for IPKF soldiers in Palaly, Jaffna, has been declared open in June 2015. The names of 33 who died in the operations in the Northern Province during 1987–1990 have been inscribed on a wall at the memorial site.[5]

Indian soldiers martyred during Operation Pawan

Here is partial list of Indian soldiers killed during Operation Pawan:

Unit - 10 Para SF
Unit - 12 Jat Regiment
Unit - 14 Jat Regiment


Unit - 10 Parachute
Unit: 13 Sikh Light Infantry.
Unit: 11 Rajputana Rifles.


Unit - 12 Jat Regiment
Unit: 10 Parachute Regiment (Desert Scorpion).
Unit: Unit: 4/5 Gorkha Rifles.
Unit - 10 Parachute
Unit: 10 Parachute Regiment (Desert Scorpion).
Unit - 270 Engineer Regiment
Unit: Special Force 10 Para Regiment.
Unit - 11 Rajputana Rifles
Unit - 5 Rajputana Rifles
Unit - 7 Rajputana Rifles
Unit: 18 Garhwal Rifles.
Unit - 4 Jat Regiment
Unit: 19 Madras batallion. He was awarded Mahavir Chakra for his act of bravery.
Main road of village Daulatabad is named after Shaheed Randhir Singh Janghu.
Unit - 14 Jat Regiment
Unit: Army Service Corps (ASC).
Unit: 10 Parachute Regiment (Desert Scorpion).
Unit - 5 Rajputana Rifles

Indian soldiers fought bravely during Operation Pawan

Unit: 10 Parachute regiment.

See also

References

  1. The Peace Accord and the Tamils in Sri Lanka.Hennayake S.K. Asian Survey, Vol. 29, No. 4. (Apr. 1989), pp. 401–415
  2. "Economic Burden by Sending IPKF in Sri Lanka" (PDF). Press Information Bureau of India – Archive. 15 December 1
  3. "J N Dixit (ex-Indian Ambassador to Colombo) speaking to Rediff.com".
  4. The Times of India, 24 Feb 2014, Southern Command chief inaugurates IPKF war memorial
  5. "Renovated memorial for IPKF soldiers"