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Mahesh

04/11/23 14:12 PM IST

Operation Cactus

In News
  • ‘India Out’ was a campaign slogan for Maldives president-elect Mohamed Muizzu, who will take over the country’s reins on November 17.
  • 35 years after the fact, India’s intervention in the 1988 coup attempt in Malé — codenamed Operation Cactus — continues to be remembered with gratitude and fondness.
Location of Maldives
  • Maldives lies to the south-west of the Indian mainland, with its capital Malé slightly more than 600 km away from Thiruvananthapuram.
  • It comprises nearly 1,200 low-lying coral islands sprawled across 90,000 sq km in the Indian Ocean.
  • Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (born 1937) became president of Maldives in 1978, amidst economic troubles and political instability.
  • Gayoom eventually went on and ruled his country for 30 years, but in the 1980s, he faced three attempted coups (in 1980, 1983 and 1988), led by Maldivians disgruntled at his rule.
  • The last one would have succeeded, if not for Indian intervention.
1988 Coup
  • The 1988 coup was the brainchild of Maldivian businessman Abdullah Luthufee and Ahmed “Sagaru” Nasir, supported by Uma Maheswaran, leader of the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), a militant Lankan Tamil organisation.
  • After months of preparations, early morning on November 3, 80 PLOTE fighters, as well as a few Maldivian locals including Luthufee and Nasir, arrived in Malé aboard a couple of Lankan freighters.
  • They were armed with heavy machine guns, AK-47s, grenades and mortars, and had designated objectives to capture important infrastructure in the city, including the headquarters of the NSS, Maldives’ sole armed force.
  • And they were successful in their objectives while suffering minimal losses: they controlled most of Malé by noon, although Gayoom himself had escaped to a safe house.
Operation Cactus
  • Operation Cactus was an Indian military operation carried out during the 1988 Maldives coup d’état attempt.
  • During this operation, the Indian Army thwarted an attempt by a group of Maldivians led by businessman Abdullah Luthufi to depose the government of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
  • Abdullah Luthufi was assisted in his coup attempt by armed mercenaries of the Tamil secessionist organisation from Sri Lanka, the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE).
  • Operation Cactus began on 3 November 1988, when an Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft airlifted a detachment of 50th Independent Parachute Brigade 6th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment and the 17th Parachute Field Regiment.
  • Under the command of Brigadier Frukh Bulsara. The detachments flew from Agra to Malé, landing at the Malé International Airport on Hulhule Island.
  • The Indian paratroopers immediately secured the airfield, crossed over to Malé in boats. They engaged the PLOTE mercenaries, where in a lengthy firefight, they secured the capital.
  • Following the end of the fighting, about 19 people were killed, mostly mercenaries and two hostages killed by them. Indian Navy Frigates intercepted the hijacked freighter that brought in the mercenary force off the Sri Lankan Coast.
  • The immediate response by the Indian military and pinpoint accuracy of the intelligence received about the coup helped in successfully averting a political crisis in the Indian Ocean.
Source- Indian Express

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