Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War

Indian Intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War
Part of the Sri Lankan civil war
Date 29 July 1987 – 24 March 1990 (2 years, 7 months, 3 weeks and 3 days) Location Sri Lanka Result Withdrawal after ceasefire
Belligerents
India Indian Peace Keeping Force  Sri Lanka	Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Commanders and leaders
R. Venkataraman Rajiv Gandhi V P Singh Maj.Gen. Harkirat Singh Maj.Gen. Ashok K. Mehta	Velupillai Prabhakaran
Casualties and losses
1,165 killed, 3009 Wounded[1]

The Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War was the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka intended to perform a peacekeeping role. The deployment followed the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord between India and Sri Lanka of 1987 which was intended to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between separatist Sri Lankan Tamil nationalists, principally the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the Sri Lankan Military.

The original intention was the Indian Peace Keeping Force would not be involved in large scale military operations. However, after a few months, the Indian Peace Keeping Force engaged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in a series of battles. During the two years in which it was deployed, the IPKF fought numerous battles against the LTTE. During 1989, the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE reached to an agreement and ceased the combat. From May 1989, the Sri Lankan government started to provide weapons to the LTTE for securing the departure of the IPKF. On June 2, the Sri Lankan government asked IPKF to leave and an official ceasefire agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE was signed on June 28.^[2] In 1990, the IPKF withdrew under the government of V. P. Singh after Ranasinghe Premadasa asked IPKF to leave at the time when the LTTE was almost defeated.^[3]