What was Operation Pawan? In which Rajnath Singh talked about giving respect to the Indian soldiers who sacrificed their lives, What was Operation Pawan? Rajnath Singh spoke about honoring the Indian soldiers who sacrificed their lives.

New Delhi. Today, on the occasion of Ex-Servicemen Day of the Indian Armed Forces, Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh praised the bravery of all the retired soldiers while paying tribute to the martyrdom of the martyred soldiers. He said that all of you are not just retired soldiers, you are living pillars of our national consciousness, symbols of our collective courage and sources of inspiration for our future generations. During this, Rajnath Singh, while referring to Operation Pawan, said that the sacrifice of Indian soldiers should be respected.

Operation Pawan took place in Sri Lanka between 1987-90, in which 1,171 Indian soldiers were martyred while more than 3,500 were injured. In 1987, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka to end the ongoing civil war between the Tamils ​​and the Sinhala community. Its objective was to establish peace by arming Tamil militant organizations like LTTE, but LTTE broke the agreement and clashed with the Indian Army. This campaign, which ran from October 1987 to March 1990, was named Operation Pawan.

Rajnath Singh said that today when the whole country is remembering its soldiers, remembering their contribution and expressing gratitude towards them, I also want to remember all the ex-servicemen who participated in the military operation carried out to establish peace in Sri Lanka in the form of IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) about 40 years ago. I am happy that today our government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is not only openly accepting the contribution of the peacekeepers who participated in ‘Operation Pawan’, but the process of recognizing their contribution is also going on at every level. When our Prime Minister visited Sri Lanka in 2015, he also paid tribute to the Indian soldiers at the IPKF Memorial. We are also recognizing the contribution of IPKF peacekeepers at the National War Memorial in New Delhi and we are also paying them full respect.