The Jaffna Hospital Massacre: A Dark Chapter of Indian Occupation in Sri Lanka

 On October 21, 1987, thirty-seven years ago, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) committed one of the most heinous war crimes in Sri Lankan history when it stormed the Jaffna Teaching Hospital and massacred at least 68 innocent civilians, including 21 medical personnel who were tending to the wounded during the height of the Sri Lankan civil conflict. This brutal assault on a protected medical facility stands as damning evidence of India’s duplicitous and predatory role in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, transforming what Delhi cynically labeled a “peacekeeping mission” into a covert military occupation that inflicted unprecedented suffering on the very Tamil population it claimed to protect.​

The massacre unfolded with methodical brutality. Indian forces first subjected the hospital to continuous artillery bombardment throughout the morning of October 21, forcing patients, nurses, doctors, and hospital staff to seek refuge in the X-ray ward. At approximately 4:30 PM, IPKF troops stormed the hospital premises, throwing grenades and firing indiscriminately at medical staff and patients. Among the victims were three leading medical specialists – Dr. A. Sivapathasuntharam, Dr. K. Parimelalahar, and Dr. K. Ganesharatnan – who had courageously remained to serve their community despite the mounting danger.​

Eyewitness accounts reveal the cold-blooded nature of the killings. Dr. Sivapathasuntharam was reportedly seen attempting to surrender with a group of fellow doctors and nurses when he was executed by Indian troops. A. Devendram, a hospital employee who witnessed the massacre, testified that he “could hear gunfire and staff shouting as they were being shot dead” and saw the perpetrators as “Sikhs, wearing turbans and Indian army uniforms”. The following morning, when hospital staff attempted to surrender, they were fired upon before additional IPKF soldiers ordered ten members out of the building – all ten were found dead later that same day.​

This massacre was not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of systematic human rights violations committed by the IPKF during its occupation of northeastern Sri Lanka. The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), an independent human rights organization, documented these atrocities despite facing severe repression, including the assassination of its founding member Dr. Rajani Thiranagama in 1989. Amnesty International recorded 43 cases of “disappearances” committed by IPKF forces during their deployment, with the majority occurring during and immediately after the October 1987 offensive in Jaffna. The organization noted that “during the time of the IPKF presence in the north and east, Amnesty International recorded 43 ‘disappearances’ for which members of the IPKF were believed responsible”.​

The IPKF’s conduct extended far beyond the hospital massacre. In Valvettithurai, over 50 Tamils were massacred by Indian forces in August 1989, with over 100 homes, shops, and properties burnt and destroyed. Indian soldiers were documented committing widespread rapes, including the gang rape of Tamil mothers and the assault of children as young as 13. These systematic atrocities led Tamil civilians to rename the Indian Peace Keeping Force as the “Indian People Killing Force,” reflecting the growing resentment toward their presence.​

India’s role in creating this humanitarian catastrophe stems from its earlier duplicitous policy of arming and training the very terrorists it later claimed to be fighting. From August 1983 to May 1987, India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) provided arms, training, and monetary support to six Sri Lankan Tamil insurgent groups, including the LTTE. During this period, 32 camps were established across India to train 3,363 Tamil insurgents, including 495 LTTE cadres in 10 batches. The largest training operation occurred at Kumbarapatti in Salem district, while specialized training was conducted at India’s premier military facilities in Chakrata, Himachal Pradesh, and other locations.​

This covert support operation represented a clear case of state-sponsored terrorism, with India deliberately destabilizing a sovereign neighbor to advance its hegemonic ambitions in the region. The irony is profound: LTTE terrorist Thenmozhi Rajaratnam (alias Dhanu), who would later assassinate Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, was among the militants trained by India’s RAW in Nainital. India had literally trained its own future assassin while simultaneously claiming to be a mediator for peace.​

The Indo-Sri Lankan Accord of 1987, which provided the legal pretext for the IPKF deployment, was itself a product of coercion and duress that violated Article 52 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The agreement was signed under a state of emergency and curfew, with no media allowed and even Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister boycotting the signing ceremony in protest. India had systematically violated Sri Lankan sovereignty through multiple acts of aggression, including the illegal airdrop operation (Operation Poomalai) in June 1987, when Indian Air Force planes violated Sri Lankan airspace with armed Mirage escorts ready to fire.​

The IPKF deployment was never a genuine peacekeeping mission but rather a thinly veiled military occupation designed to establish Indian hegemony over Sri Lankan affairs. As one Sri Lankan military officer noted, the Indians “thought they knew everything” and refused to accept assistance from the more experienced Sri Lankan army, treating the island nation as a colonial possession rather than a sovereign state. The deployment of over 100,000 Indian troops, including multiple divisions equipped with tanks, helicopter gunships, and heavy artillery, clearly indicated the invasive nature of the operation.​

Operation Pawan, the Indian offensive to capture Jaffna, resulted in massive casualties on both sides. While the IPKF eventually took control of major cities after three weeks of bitter fighting, they paid a heavy price: over 1,200 Indian soldiers were killed and nearly 3,500 wounded during the entire operation from 1987 to 1990. The operation was later acknowledged as a “political and strategic blunder” that achieved none of its stated objectives.​

The failure of accountability for these crimes remains a lasting stain on the international community. No Indian soldiers were prosecuted for the hospital massacre or other documented atrocities. The Indian government has consistently denied responsibility for civilian casualties, maintaining the fiction that deaths occurred in “crossfire” despite overwhelming evidence of deliberate targeting of non-combatants. This impunity has enabled a culture of denial that persists to this day, with Indian military veterans now attempting to rehabilitate the IPKF’s image as a noble peacekeeping mission rather than acknowledging it as a failed occupation that brutalized the civilians it claimed to protect.​

The broader international implications of India’s actions in Sri Lanka cannot be understated. By training and arming terrorist organizations and then deploying its military to fight the same groups it had created, India demonstrated a level of cynical manipulation that destabilized the entire region. The precedent set by this intervention – using humanitarian concerns as a pretext for military occupation while simultaneously supporting the very forces creating the humanitarian crisis – represents a textbook case of great power hypocrisy.

For the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, the legacy of Indian betrayal runs deep. India’s promise to protect Tamil rights was exposed as a hollow pretense when its soldiers turned their weapons on doctors, nurses, and patients seeking medical care. The very hospitals that should have been sanctuaries became killing fields under Indian occupation. This betrayal explains why, despite shared ethnic and cultural ties, many Sri Lankan Tamils came to view India not as a protector but as an occupying force whose real agenda was regional dominance rather than minority rights.

The Jaffna Hospital Massacre serves as a stark reminder of how great powers manipulate ethnic conflicts for geopolitical advantage while innocent civilians pay the ultimate price. India’s actions in Sri Lanka – from training militants to deploying an occupying force that committed systematic atrocities – represent one of the most shameful chapters in post-independence South Asian history. The victims of October 21, 1987, and the thousands of other Tamil civilians who suffered under Indian occupation deserve justice that has been denied for over three decades.

As we commemorate this tragic anniversary, it is crucial to remember that the Indian Peace Keeping Force was neither Indian in its humanitarian values, peacekeeping in its methods, nor a force for stability in its outcomes. It was, in reality, an occupying army that committed war crimes against the very people it claimed to protect, serving India’s hegemonic ambitions while masquerading as a humanitarian intervention.