In March 1990, an Indian Air Force IL-76 took off from Trincomalee, in eastern Sri Lanka, en route to Mauritius. On board was Tamil leader V Perumal, the Northeast provincial council’s chief minister, along with his family and some 200 supporters, among India’s closest allies on the island.
Perumal’s organisation, the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front, had paid a bloody price for standing by India’s peacekeeping mission. So when India withdrew in defeat, it evacuated him as well as well as thousands of other threatened Sri Lankan Tamils. This was not merely about moral principle, but also out of interest to protect its assets and keep leverage over Sri Lanka.
India’s Failure to Help Afghan Friends is a Strategic Liability – CSEP
