Operation Poomalai

 The Indian Air Force's mission to airdrop supplies over the besieged city of Jaffna in Sri Lanka on June 4, 1987, in support of the Tamil Tigers during the Sri Lankan Civil War was known as Operation Poomalai (Poomalai means 'Flower Garland'), also known as Eagle Mission 4.

Then, as a part of Colombo's attack against the Tamil separatist movement, Sri Lankan forces blockaded Jaffna, India sought to negotiate a political solution with Colombo after becoming concerned about alleged infringement of the Tamils' rights, who had strong backing among the Tamil community of South India as well as government. Calls for intervention in what the India (and Tamil) media increasingly saw as a growing humanitarian catastrophe developed as the number of civilian fatalities increased, particularly in light of allegations of aircraft bombing of rebel positions in residential areas.

Under Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, the Indian government made the decision to make an attempt to send aid to Sri Lanka's north as a show of support for the rebels. The Sri Lanka Navy intercepted the first of such attempts, a naval flotilla, and ordered it to turn around. India carried out the airdrop over Jaffna two days later.

Origins 
Since the island's 1948 separation from Britain, there has been ethnic violence in Sri Lanka. A majority-Sinhala administration was in place at the time and issued laws that the sizeable Tamil minority community found to be discriminatory. In order to push for a separate state of Tamil Eelam within the framework of a federal structure in northern and eastern Sri Lanka that would allow the Tamils greater autonomy, two significant Tamil parties came together to create the TULF (Tamil United Liberation Front) in the 1970s. However, groups outside the TULF quickly began to develop that favored more extreme and militant strategies, and the conflicts began to erupt into a bloody civil war.

The Four Four Bravo event, which ignited anti-Tamil riots which approximately 3000 Tamil civilians were massacred by state-sponsored mobs, set off the first round of violence in 1983. The riots simply served to exacerbate the ethnic conflict, which was already becoming worse. At this period, the LTTE and other militant groups acquired a lot of new members, continued to capitalise on widespread Tamil unrest, and intensified their guerrilla operations. The world's oldest live human-planted tree, which was planted there in 288 BC, is located at Sri Maha Bodhi Shrine, became the target of a guerrilla attack in May 1985. The shrine is a holy place for Buddhists. A slaughter then erupted throughout the town. The assault claimed at least 150 lives among civilians and monks. The Anuradhapura Massacre is the name given to this incident. This was also interpreted as payback for the two days earlier 1985 Valvettiurai massacre. In this occurrence, the Sri Lankan Army compelled 70 Tamil youngsters to assemble inside the town's library before it was destroyed by heavy explosives.

The Sri Lankan army besieged Jaffna, an LTTE stronghold, in 1987 as part of its operation against the Tamil strongholds known as the Vadamarachchi Operation, as the government intensified its fight against the insurgency. The Sri Lankan government was urged to stop the attack since it was thought to be against the sovereign rights of a country by India, which had been supporting the Tamil groups, especially the LTTE, in the southern portion of the country. The Indian attempts, however, proved fruitless. India said on 2 June 1987 that it will deploy a convoy of ships to northern Sri Lanka to give humanitarian aid after failing to negotiate an end to the dispute with Sri Lanka. An Indian Coast Guard vessel escorted a convoy of 19 fishing boats carrying 38 tonnes of food, fuel, and medical supplies. The convoy was intercepted and turned back by the Sri Lankan Navy on June 4, 1987. As the convoy neared Sri Lankan waters in the Palk Strait, several Sri Lankan patrol boats met it. Following a four-hour standoff, the Indian convoy made a U-turn.

Following the failure of the naval mission, the Indian government decided to conduct Operation Poomalai, also known as Eagle Mission 4, which involved dropping humanitarian aid to the LTTE by plane in an effort to show support for the Tamil rebels symbolically and to maintain Rajiv Gandhi's standing among the country's Tamil population.

Operation 
The mission, mounted on the evening of June 4, 1987, featured five An-32 aircraft from the Paratroop Training School in Agra and five Mirage 2000 aircraft from the No.7 Squadron. On June 2 around 2200, 7 Squadron received orders to dispatch a six-aircraft detachment to Bangalore Airport. However, they were then told to go to Yelahanka Airbase, which is located north of the city. At the same time, five An-32 aircraft were loaded with relief supplies and set out for Bangalore at 8:00 under the direction of Air Marshal S.Raghavendran, the vice chief of air staff at the time. They were to take off after daybreak, under the command of Wg. Cdr. Ajit Bhavnani, CO of No. 7 Squadron, and drop the supplies while the Mirages were concealed by Gp. Capt. B.K. Sunder, CO of Paratroop Training School. 35 Journalists from throughout the nation and the world also boarded the trip. To counter potential opposition from the Si Lanka Air Force, the Mirages were equipped with two Matra Magic II AAMs and two 30mm DEFA 554 revolver cannons with 125 rounds each. They also carried three drop tanks.

Bernard Tilakaratna, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to New Delhi, was called to the Ministry of External Affairs at 15:00, when Minister of External Affairs Natwar Singh delivered the information that the Indian Air Force would be conducting a mission at 16:00 to drop supplies over Jaffna. He was informed that the mission was carried out without incident and that an resistance from the Sri Lankan Air Force "would be met with force" by the escorting Mirage 2000s.

At 15:55, the first flight took off from Bangalore (now Bengaluru) and headed towards the Coromandel coast, where it was met by four Mirage escorts. Along with two more An-32 aircraft lying over Tamil Nadu, one Mirage remained behind to serve as a radio relay for Banglore. The An-32 aircraft transported over 25 tonnes of food aid, including rice, milk powder, vegetables, and fuel.

At 16:47, the flight leader attempted to make radio contact with Colombo ATC on the civil air traffic radio channel, but was unsuccessful. At around 16:50, the expedition arrived at the Jaffna peninsula, and around 17:00, it saw Jaffna Town. The drop was performed in the drop zone, which was about 7km from the town of Jaffna, after the aircraft plummeted from a height of 12000 feet to around 1500 feet. The plane then made a U-turn and flew above the Palay airfield before reversing course and going north towards the Indian coast. At 18:13, the mission returned to skies over Banglore.

Repercussion 
After Operation Poomalai, Sri Lanka charged India with infringing on its territorial integrity. India refused to exclude out more operations at the time, but instead justified its actions as a mercy mission to save the civilian population, which it claimed was in worsening conditions. The activities were supported by the political diaspora in India. When Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the LTTE in 1991, it was perceived in India at the time as an act of solidarity against the oppressed and besieged Tamil community in the north. However, this perception was destined to drastically change after that. Colombo saw it as an obvious demonstration of support for the Tamil Tigers at the time. Little more than 25 tonnes of supplies were airdropped by India during the operation, which was obviously insufficient to support a besieged city.