As Sri Lanka’s military offensive tightened a siege around Jaffna, India carried out an airdrop of food and medicine. The operation signaled India’s willingness to act directly in Sri Lanka’s conflict and helped set the stage for later diplomacy and troop deployment.
Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed the Indo–Sri Lanka Accord in Colombo. The agreement aimed to reduce fighting by promoting provincial power-sharing and by requiring Tamil militant groups to disarm under Indian supervision.
During a guard-of-honor ceremony as Gandhi was leaving Sri Lanka, a Sri Lankan naval rating struck at him with a rifle butt. Gandhi was not seriously injured, but the incident reflected the political tension and public anger surrounding the accord and India’s new role.
The LTTE turned over several truckloads of weapons to the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) at Palaly in an early disarmament step. Reporting at the time described it as a partial or “token” handover, highlighting early mistrust over how fully militants would disarm.
As relations with the LTTE deteriorated, the IPKF shifted from peacekeeping toward combat operations, beginning Operation Pawan to seize or destroy LTTE communications and strongpoints around Jaffna. This marked a major turning point: India’s forces became a direct battlefield opponent of the LTTE.
Indian special forces and infantry carried out a heliborne raid aimed at capturing LTTE leaders believed to be at the Jaffna University complex. The raid failed and suffered heavy casualties, demonstrating the limits of intelligence and rapid-strike tactics in a densely populated combat zone.
Sri Lanka’s Parliament adopted the 13th Amendment and the Provincial Councils Act, creating provincial councils and laying out a framework for devolving some powers from the central government. This was a core political promise linked to the Indo–Sri Lanka Accord and was meant to address Tamil demands through constitutional change.
Presidential proclamations enabled the Northern and Eastern provinces to be administered together as a single unit (the North Eastern Province), pending a later referendum. This administrative step followed the accord’s devolution plan and shaped the political landscape the IPKF was operating within.
Elections were held for the newly merged North Eastern Provincial Council. The vote was intended to create a local civilian political structure under the devolution framework, even as fighting continued and security conditions remained unstable in many areas.
Ranasinghe Premadasa took office as President of Sri Lanka, replacing Jayewardene. Under the new government, Sri Lanka’s approach toward India’s troop presence changed, and the question of how—and whether—the IPKF should remain became a central political issue.
After months of growing political pressure and reduced cooperation between India and Sri Lanka, the IPKF began its final departure process. The drawdown reflected the failure to achieve a stable disarmament-and-devolution settlement while the LTTE remained militarily capable.
India completed the withdrawal of the Indian Peace Keeping Force, ending the 1987–1990 intervention. The departure left Sri Lanka’s government and the LTTE facing each other again without an external force between them, and the conflict soon moved into a new phase.
Fighting resumed between the Sri Lankan state and the LTTE after peace talks broke down, marking the start of Eelam War II. The renewed war underscored a key outcome of the IPKF period: constitutional reforms existed on paper, but the security and political settlement the accord aimed for did not hold.
Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) intervention in Sri Lanka (1987-1990)