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Operation Poomalai : The Jaffna mission




Indian intervention in Sri Lanka was more than political rustling of South India or the helping hand Indian forces were giving to their neighbours to bring back normalcy to the northern region which was badly being affected by the riots caused by ethnic polarities which was increasingly widened by two factors. Majorly that are regional politics and the Indian decision to step in supporting an extreme group that was Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Here discussing operation Poonamalai is important. While Srilankan Govt. was expecting moderate approach from Indian counterpart but the intensity of riots in which casualities were mainly Tamil civilians.
It was June 3rd of 1984, Jaffna was under total blockade by army men from Colombo who were going hard and fast at the Tamil seperatist groups. Fighter planes standing at Gwalior Air Force station received an unusual request. The Mahrajpur Air Force station was not ending the day that early as the evening schedule since the order was to  move some planes to the south of the country. From Bangalore they were quickly asked to go the south of airfield. The twist is that by this time no one had any idea , none of the pilots what the mission was. Only at 2100 hours on the night the first briefing. The plam for them was to fly as escorts to Indian Jets An-32 for supplying food packets over North Srilanka.
The mission to drop supplies over Northern Sri Lanka in the Jaffna Peninsula was named 'Operation Poomalai' (Garland). At first Indian Government planned supply of food in more official fashion with a notice of arrival to Sri Lankan Government.  Sri Lankan Naval base sent back the Indian cargo containing 1000 tonnes of supplies. This was not going to be taken lightly by anyone here. This simply forced the government to continue their support for 'humanitarian reasons'.
This time Indian Government again warned the Srilankan Ambassador in India about the mission and was notified that they are expecting zero hurdles whatsoever.

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