Operation Pawan

Operation Pawan Latest News

For the first time, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Upendra Dwivedi recently paid homage to soldiers who laid down their lives during Operation Pawan, the 1987 Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) mission in Sri Lanka.

About Operation Pawan

• It was launched by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1987, sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka to help quell the civil war between the Tamil and Sinhala communities. 
• It was India’s first major overseas military campaign post-Independence. 
• It was launched under the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of July 29, 1987.
• It involved sending nearly 100,000 Indian troops into Sri Lanka to disarm the Tamil militant groups, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and restore peace. 
• The mission soon escalated into intense counter-insurgency combat as the LTTE turned hostile.
• It took until October 26, 1987, for IPKF troops to capture the city of Jaffna. 
• However, the LTTE melted away into the jungle, and their leader V.Prabhakaran eluded capture. 
• 1,171 Indian soldiers were martyred, and over 3,500 were injured. 
• So intense was the conflict that many bodies of personnel could not be recovered.
• One of the most notable martyrs of Operation Pawan was Major Ramaswamy Parameswaran, a Param Vir Chakra recipient, who was killed on 25 November, 1987.
• ‘Operation Pawan’ formally ended on 24 March 1990 with the withdrawal of the IPKF. 
• Although Sri Lanka has constructed a memorial acknowledging the IPKF’s role, the operation did not receive formal commemoration at the National War Memorial (Rashtriya Samar Smarak) in New Delhi.
• For decades, veterans and families sought formal recognition. In 2025, the Army finally acknowledged their long-overlooked sacrifice.

Source: TH

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