It Jaffna University It has been more than 35 years since the Heliborne operation in which 29 Indian Peacekeepers (IPKF) soldiers were martyred. I was in Madras (now Chennai) when I received a call from the then Army Commander Southern Command, Lt Gen Deepinder Singh, to immediately go to Sri Lanka and take over the command of the IPKF. Losing one’s men in battle is one’s worst nightmare, and that too when the loss could have been avoided with proper planning.
lite net
I landed within a few hours at Palali airfield in Jaffna and took over from the general there, who had been sent on ‘leave’. I felt that my first priority was to rescue the survivors and those trapped in the Jaffna University campus.
To briefly explain the situation; On the night of 12 October 1987, the General-in-Command of the IPKF claimed that he had intelligence that the Jaffna University campus was being used by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as their headquarters and that the top LTTE leadership would be meeting there. Accordingly, he planned a Heliborne operation to capture the LTTE leadership at the university followed by the capture of the city of Jaffna.
Unfortunately, the LTTE was already aware of his plans as they had stopped his transmission over wireless and the soldiers had fallen into a trap. The LTTE had deployed its soldiers on the top floor of the university who opened fire on the IPFK. This was an unprofessional plan as one of the basic rules of the Safe Landing Zone (LZ) was not taken into account before commencing the heliborne operation. So my first reaction was also anguish as well as anger at the needless loss of life.
I felt that my first priority was to rescue the survivors and those trapped in the university campus and then to capture the city of Jaffna. Back in India, questions were raised in Parliament about what was happening and what action the Indian government was taking. He was informed that the General Commanding of the IPKF had gone on leave and was replaced by General Calcutt. Regarding the same, I got a call from Ronen Sen in PMO who told me that PM Rajiv Gandhi is going to Washington where he will address US Congress and it will be a shame for India if Indian Army is the third largest army in the world. Couldn’t deal with a group of bandits, terrorists who took control of Jaffna, it would have had very poor optics.
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under the clock tower
I was careful not to continue the further approach, which resulted in heavy casualties for us, so as expected of the LTTE, I decided to make a cover movement from east and west to surround the city from east and west. did. area completely. Brigadier Manjit Singh led the western flank and another brigadier was sent from the eastern flank. A study of the map of Jaffna showed a railway line running parallel to the main road of the city. Armored Corps Squadron Commander Major Anil Kaul leads his squadron of tanks on this route. They realized that the route was stuck and so instead of walking on the road, they went on the railway track.
Major Kaul lost one eye during the move and was later awarded the Vir Chakra. Brigadier Manjit Singh, who successfully transferred his brigade from the western flank, was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra. Major Padmanabhan, a company commander on the western frontier, fought valiantly but was killed in action and was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously.
Meanwhile, I was worried about the machine-gun fire that the LTTE was raining on us from the Jaffna Clock Tower, the tallest building in the city. I asked Company Commander Major Tippy Brar to fire the rocket launcher at him. A rocket launcher shot down the machine gun and hit the top of the clock tower.
The LTTE, which had positioned itself in front of the city of Jaffna, was not anticipating this attack. We managed to pull out our men and take the survivors to the Chennai hospital. Jaffna town fell after 16 days. But this was the first phase of IPKF’s successful fight for the city of Jaffna and even today I feel the inevitable life we have lost at Jaffna University.
The author is a former IPKF commander. Thoughts are personal.