Coup attempt in the Maldives
On November 3, 1988, a group of Maldives tried to usurp political power in the Maldives . Paratroopers from the Indian armed forces defeated the coup plotters and restored the old balance of power.
prehistory
The coup attempts in 1980 and 1983 against the government of President Gayoom received little international attention; the 1988 attempt received much international attention. About 80 armed mercenaries from the Tamil PLOTE ( People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam ) under the leadership of businessman Abdullah Luthufi landed in the capital Malé before nightfall . They had come from a freighter in speed boats . A group of around 80 men had previously traveled to Malé disguised as tourists. The mercenaries quickly took control of the capital, including the government buildings, television stations, radio stations, the port and the airport.
They did not succeed in capturing President Gayoom. He fled his home and turned to the governments of the United States , Great Britain and India . The Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi , immediately dispatched 1,600 Indian soldiers to restore order in Malé.
Operation Cactus
The code name of the reconquest was called Operation Cactus in the Indian armed forces . On the night of November 3, an Indian battalion from the Indian paratrooper regiment took off with Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft from the Agra air base . They flew 2,000 kilometers non-stop and the soldiers jumped over the Malé International Airport on the island of Hulhulé . They arrived less than 12 hours after President Gayoom's cry for help.
The paratroopers immediately secured the airfield and restored order to Malé within a few hours. Some mercenaries fled to Sri Lanka in a hijacked freighter . Some did not make it to the ship, were captured and turned over to the Gayoom government. 19 people were killed in the fighting, most of them putschists. Two people killed were hostages of the putschists. The Indian frigates INS Godavari and INS Betwa landed the freighter off the coast of Sri Lanka and took the mercenaries prisoner. The Indian Army named the precise work of the intelligence services as one of the reasons for the success of the operation.
Aftermath
In July 1989, India delivered the mercenaries captured on the freighter to the Maldives. The mercenaries were sentenced to death, but President Gayoom, under Indian pressure, commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment .
Former Maldivian President Ibrahim Nasir denied allegations that he was involved in the attempted coup. In July 1990, Nasir was pardoned in absentia because President Gayoom praised his contribution to the independence of the Maldives. The future Minister of Defense of the Maldives, General Musa Ali Jaleel, was wounded in combat during the coup and received the Maldivian Purple Heart in 2010 for his bravery.
Individual evidence
- ^ Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies - Country Data - Republic of Maldives ( Memento of July 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ A b Operation Cactus - The IAF airlift into the Maldives . bharat-rakshak.com. Archived from the original on September 21, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
- ↑ a b Operation CACTUS: Maldives Operation . bharat-rakshak.com. Archived from the original on October 11, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
- ^ Madagascar Security Concerns .
- ↑ Chief of Defense Force Major General Moosa Ali Jaleel awarded Purple Heart and Long Service Medal . miadhu.com. November 4, 2010. Archived from the original on March 16, 2012. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
