Some facts from the IPKF's battle of Jaffna University

Many of you would have seen the Hollywood movie “Black Hawk Down”. The movie depicts the events of the Battle of Mogadishu in October 1993 when a unit of the US army sent to extricate the Somali rebel leadership, was ambushed, their helicopters shot down, and had to be evacuated by armoured carriers. It was the result of a major intelligence failure, where the Somali rebels had prior information of US operations that day.

What you might know is how 6 years prior to that event, in October 1987 the Indian army found itself in exactly the same scenario during the Battle of Jaffna University in Sri Lanka - An airborne commando operation to extricate the LTTE leadership was ambushed, attacked and then had to be evacuated in a now legendary tank operation.

My intention is not to detail out the events of October 11-12, 1987 when the Battle of Jaffna University occurred but to give some interesting facts from it. You can read about the complete battle on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffna_University_Helidrop).

The events occurred during the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping force) mission in Sri Lanka. IPKF had been assembled on the lines of the UN peacekeeping forces, and its intent was to disarm LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), then the most powerful militant organization in the world.

IPKF had intelligence of Prabhakaran (chief of LTTE) being present in Jaffna University. Jaffna was the de-facto capital of LTTE. A heliborne operation was planned using the Mi-8 choppers of the Indian Air force. Unknown to IPKF, LTTE had broken their radio code and was aware of all the operational planning. As the first sorties of Mi-8s came to land in the university football ground on the night of 11-Oct, they were ambushed by LTTE using the 50 caliber machine guns. The Mi-8s were not attack choppers and one can only admire the bravery of IAF pilots who conducted 4 landings in intense anti-aircraft fire before the damage was so severe to the choppers that they could no longer be safe to fly.

Of the planned 480 troops for the operation, only 110 soldiers could be Heli-dropped (80 commandos of 10 Para SF and a company of 30 troops from Sikh LI). LTTE snipers were able to pick Indian troops even before their parachutes had touched the ground. It was a perfect ambush setup.

The Sikh company was completely annihilated with the last 3 remaining soldiers doing a bayonet charge when their ammo ran out. Only 1 soldier survived who was taken prisoner and released by LTTE a few days after the battle.

The paras, who due to their tougher training, were able to create a defensive position but lost 6 men during the night long battle.

Next day, a rescue mission was formed and Major Anil Kaul led a unit of 3 T-72 tanks into the university complex to evacuate the stranded commandos. He was then a major of 65th armored regiment, a unit that his father brigadier KK Kaul had established in 1966. Kaul became legendary for driving his tanks on the Jaffna railway track while being bombarded with rockets. He would lose an eye and his left arm in the battle but the tanks were able to provide cover and evacuate the para commandos.

The battle failure was the result of 2 aspects which have been repeated in many battles in history - Intelligence failure and lack of acclimatization for the troops. The LTTE had got advanced information of the Indian army plans and when and where it will carry out the attack. The 13^th Sikh LI was an infantry fighting unit with no particular experience in close quarter combat like the one in Jaffna university.  Also, the 13th had just arrived in Jaffna with no time to acclimatize to the ground situation in Sri Lanka. They were put in direct operation without any ground knowledge.

Some of the current Indian army commanders served during the IPK of operations in Sri Lanka. The current army chief General Manoj Naravane was part of IPKF in Sri Lanka, as was Lt. Gen Ata Hasnain (now retired), who has commanded the 15 core in Srinagar.

It is very surprising that today also you read about prominent politicians around the world talking about the return of the LTTE. This was one of the most cruel militant organizations in the world which openly advertised the use of child soldiers for suicide attack and bombings.

IPKF was also supposedly betrayed by then Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa, who in the first place had invited IPKF to restore peace in the island country but ended up secretly aligning with the LTTE to defeat it. 3 years after IPKF troops left Sri Lanka, Premadasa was assassinated by the LTTE.

Ultimately LTTE was wiped out by the Sri Lankan army in a war that ended with Prabhakaran’s killing in 2009.

I have also never understood why Indian history books do not talk about the IPKF operations which claimed the lives of 500 Indian soldiers. History should be to learn from our mistakes and not to repeat them in future.