Operation Pawan | 26 Nov 2025

Source: TH 

Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) paid homage to soldiers who laid down their lives during Operation Pawan at the National War Memorial. 

• Operation Pawan: It was the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) mission in Sri Lanka under the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, undertaken during the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009), marking India’s first major post-Independence international peacekeeping deployment. 
  • The Accord signed by PM Rajiv Gandhi and President J. R. Jayewardene, sought to curb the intensifying conflict between the Sinhalese-majority government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 
  • The IPKF was tasked with removing LTTE control over the Jaffna Peninsula of Sri Lanka and enforcing disarmament. 
  • The IPKF conducted a counter-insurgency campaign from December 1987 to March 1990, preventing the LTTE from retaking Jaffna. This mission came to be known as Operation Pawan.