The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers), a separatist militant organisation under Velupillai Prabhakaran, began its bloody insurgent fight aiming to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of Sri Lanka on 23 July 1983.

Then began some ironic political chess moves. The Indian government, hoping to keep the Tamil independence movement divided and be able to exert overt control over it, decided to train and support the LTTE and reportedly ordered the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) to do so. From August 1983 till May 1987, R&AW provided arms, training and monetary support to 6 Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups, namely Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS) Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and Tamil Eelam Liberation Army (TELA). Thirty-two camps were set up all over India to impart military training to 3363 Tamil insurgents including women, to fight against Sri Lankan armed forces during the succeeding years. 

Even the state governments or Sri Lankan opposition leader Appapillai Amirthalingam were not aware of such a mission until April 1984.

Further two ironies were that (a) R&AW requisitioned Indian Army personnel to carry out the training which was used by LTTE against them with deadly effect and (b) Thenmozhi Rajaratnam alias Dhanu, who carried out the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and Sivarasan, the key conspirator, were among those  trained by R&AW.

When escalation of level of the conflict in Sri Lanka led to the pouring of refugees into India in 1987, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took the step to push the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord through and on the request of then Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), formed under the accord’s mandate, was inducted into Sri Lanka.

Almost 100,000 personnel from the three services, mainly Army, were deployed under the command of Headquarters (HQ) IPKF, India’s first joint operations military command, to launch what was codenamed Operation (Op) Pawan against the recalcitrant Tamil militants who refused to give up arms. In this intense and bloody operation which lasted for 32 months- from 29 July 1987 to 24 March 1990 - 1,165 Indian personnel were killed in action  and 3,009 wounded. The IPKF was awarded one Param Vir Chakra, one Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal, three Maha Vir Chakra, 98 Vir Chakra and over 250 other gallantry awards.

Botched-up peacekeeping operation

As per the terms of the accord, IPKF’s main task was to disarm not just the LTTE, but also all other militant groups. This was to be quickly followed by the formation of an Interim Administrative Council. IPKF was initially not expected to be involved in any significant combat, but within a few months, it became embroiled in battle with the LTTE to enforce peace. The differences which cropped up owing to LTTE trying to dominate the Interim Administrative Council and also refusing to disarm, which was a precondition to enforce peace in the island, soon led to the LTTE attacking the IPKF.

The prolonged 32 months of IPKF’s Operation Pawan was fought at a disproportionately high cost of the lives of over 1,100 Indian Army personnel, because firstly, this was a largely flawed political approach, as already brought out. Secondly, planning was hurried and incomplete and with adhocism; there was lack of preparation; lack of vital and even basic intelligence and maps for IPKF in the face of the LTTE, which was also highly trained in guerilla warfare, extensive use of explosives, was highly motivated as well as ruthless enough not only women, but also child soldiers to fight. While LTTE used large amounts of explosives to knock out tanks, infantry combat vehicles and other vehicles, its improvised anti-personnel mines took a devastating toll of the troops moving on foot.

Sinhalese nationalist sentiment building up to oppose the continued Indian presence in Sri Lanka led to the Sri Lankan government's call for India to quit the island and entering into a secret deal with the LTTE, that culminated in a ceasefire. But the LTTE and IPKF continued to have frequent hostilities. In April 1989, the Ranasinghe Premadasa government ordered the Sri Lanka Army to clandestinely hand over arms consignments to the LTTE to fight the IPKF. Although casualties among the IPKF mounted and calls for the withdrawal of the IPKF from both sides of the Sri Lankan conflict grew, Rajiv Gandhi refused to remove the IPKF from Sri Lanka. However, following his defeat in Indian parliamentary elections in December 1989, the new Prime Minister V. P. Singh ordered the withdrawal of the IPKF, and their last ship left Sri Lanka on 24 March 1990.

No welcoming ceremony on return

 The brave IPKF personnel landing in Chennai on 31 March 1990 were  surprised and disappointed at the indifferent response to their homecoming. There was not a single official of the Tamil Nadu state government or the central government at the docks to welcome them on return to their motherland. What shocked the returning troops most was how even the then military leadership also distanced itself and did not organise any welcome ceremony.

Later, insult was added to injury, when despite so many troops in intensive operations, large numbers of casualties and military awards, the apex Indian military hierarchy termed Op Pawan as a “minor” operation. As a result, till date it does not have a formal Commemoration Day at the National War Memorial (NWM). While the Indian military denies its Op Pawan veterans a formal day of commemoration, the Sri Lanka government erected a magnificent IPKF War Memorial in Colombo and renovated the one in Palaly, Jaffna to honour the supreme sacrifice of Indian troops on their soil.

All those who survived and returned eventually became veterans who continued to strongly feel that the nation owes it to the Indian soldiers killed during the IPKF intervention in Sri Lanka be officially honoured and remembered by proclaiming 24 March as a commemorative “IPKF Day” with an appropriate get-together and a ceremony including a detachment of soldiers reversing their arms and wreath-laying as gestures to pay tribute to all ranks who laid down their lives.

In 2019 the National War Memorial was at long last constructed in Delhi and from 2021 IPKF veterans and their family members began getting together there in March every year to commemorate the sacrifices of their comrades.  This year, marking the fifth get-together since 2021, the response for the get-together was well over hundred Veterans, Veer Naris (widows of personnel killed in action) and various family members, including some grandchildren of the IPKF personnel. The attendees included families of decorated heroes like Major R. Parameshwaran, Param Vir Chakra (Posthumous), Second Lieutenant A S Bedi, Vir Chakra (Posthumous), regimental representatives from units like the 65 Armoured Regiment, Mechanised Infantry and battalions of Rajput, Mahar,  Madras and Jat Regiments Also present were both the daughters of late Col Anil Kaul, Vir Chakra, who, despite losing his right eye and fingers of his left arm when his tank was shot by a LTTE militant with a rocket-launcher, wrapped a towel around his head, wrapped some cloth around his wounded hand and had to wait for a long time till the situation became safe enough for him to be evacuated. The presence of the kin of these martyrs—sons, daughters, wives, and siblings - added emotional depth to the event.

Unfortunately for these attendees, the process of obtaining permission from the Army Headquarters to hold the event on 24 March 2025 turned out to be most frustrating. Most of the IPKF Veterans and Veer Nari are between 70 to 80 and a few even over 90 years of age. Yet, the time slot thoughtlessly allotted for the event as in the past, was 3.30 p.m. in warm weather, instead of 5.30 p.m. as was repeatedly requested. The attendees not only faced discomfort owing to the unbearable heat, one of them fainted during the function. Shockingly, permission to get water to the affected person was denied. Yet another irony was that all this was caused by high-ranking staff officers who seem to have forgotten that they too would soon be veterans themselves.

A major effort has been on for quite some time  by the IPKF veterans for the Sri Lankan operation to get its deserved ceremonial status and it is hoped that the nation's top brass will do the needful to rightfully commemorate a very significant international military operation by its armed forces. 

(The author is a strategic affairs analyst and former spokesperson, Defence Ministry and Indian Army. Views are personal. He can be contacted at wordsword02@gmail.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/anil-bhat-70b94766/ and @ColAnilBhat8252)