Jaffna (Sri Lanka), Thirty-six years ago, the Indian Army was involved in a devastating massacre at a hospital in Jaffna city, Sri Lanka, resulting in the death of at least 47 Tamil patients and 21 doctors.

According to a news release by Kashmir Media Service, the tragic incident unfolded between October 21 and 22, 1987, amid the Sri Lankan Civil War, as the Indian Peace Keeping Force entered the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Eyewitness testimonies, as reported by Tamil Guardian, revealed that Indian troops systematically executed the massacre on the hospital grounds.

In 2008, the Sri Lankan government officially recognized the Jaffna massacre as a grave crime against humanity. Furthermore, it was not an isolated incident; the Indian military had previously been implicated in events such as the deaths of 64 civilians in Welikada in 1987, 40 in Chavakachcheri in 1988, and over 40 individuals in Kokuvil in 1989.

Such actions led the Tamil community to dub the Indian Peace Keeping Force as the “Indian People Killing Force.” These events stirred profound resentment within the Tamil community, pushing them to seek justice and eventually leading to the Indian military’s exit from Sri Lanka. The attempted assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 by Kalaivani Rajaratnam, a Tamil woman who had suffered assault by the Indian military, is another aftermath of these atrocities.

Tamil Guardian also highlighted that the Indian military’s operations in Sri Lanka were marred with extensive human rights abuses, including looting, massacres, and various injustices, marking a significant blemish on their record.