Operation Cactus veterans recall how they foiled the 1988 Maldives coup
HYDERABAD: November 3, 1988. It was a chilly morning in Patna when the-then Prime Minster Rajiv Gandhi, who was touring the city on official business, received a call from his PMO. Ronen Sen, the then Joint Secretary in his PMO informed that the Ministry of External Affairs just received an SOS from the Maldivian president asking India's help to rescue him from an attempted coup.
On this day, 30 years ago, India shot into the global limelight when it intervened into the attempted coup of then Maldivian president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's administration by the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE).
On Sunday, security personnel who participated in the mission, famously known as Operation Cactus, gave a first-hand account of how they secured the Maldivian president. Group Captain Ashok K Chordia, Lieutenant General K Ramachandra Rao and Wing Commander Unni Kartha, who were all part of this mission, recalled their experiences in a meeting organised by the NGO Social Cause in the city. Chordia, who now works as a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies said, "It all began at 6:30 AM when then- MEA Joint Secretary Kuldip Sahdev received an SOS from the Maldives."
The People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), backed by Maldivian businessman Abdulla Luthufi, mounted a coup in the country. "The Maldivian president hid in Male from where the SOS was sent. Initially, the rebels thought Gayoom had left for India. That gave us a little bit of time," said Chordia.
Back in the country, deliberations regarding the issue had started. "The Prime Minister was at Patna at that time. As soon as he returned to New Delhi at around 11.30 am, his first question was: Should we do this? This can happen in our country someday and it is in our interest to protect them."
The challenges were myriad. The army did not have proper intelligence. "There was a serious lack of intelligence. We did not know the strength or the capabilities of the rebels. We did not know who controlled the airport at Hulhule." Hulhule is an island in the Maldives, 4.5 km from Maldives' capital Male, from where the security personnel gained entry into the country.
After much deliberation and planning, paratroopers belonging to the 44 Squadron of the Indian Air Force, working in Rajasthan and Lucknow, left from Agra Air Force Station at 6 pm. "We had no idea where we were going. There was high secrecy. We all speculated we could be going to Sri Lanka since the LTTE conflict was going on there. It seemed like a logical assumption."
"We had no maps or naval charts. It was literally like flying in the dark," he added. It was only when Chordia and others were distributed ammunition, and briefed about their plans after more than two hours into their journey, that they realised that they were going to Maldives, he said.
However, the landing was a problem since there was no way to know whether the airport was in the control of rebels. "So how do you land on an island when you do not know whether the people there are friends or enemies? A code word was decided: "hudiya". If we say "hudiya", and get back "hudiya", it meant that the coast was clear. That day, the plane's captain Captain Bewoor sent a message on the radio saying: Do you have a message for me? It replied: hudia, hudia, hudia."
It was 11:30 PM when the paratroopers landed in Hulhule. "When we landed, the rebels could make out only our silhouette in the dark. They got scared and thought we were around 1,600. On the other hand, we realised that their strength was just around 80. They started escaping. On their way, they killed 19 people and took hostages, including a Maldivian minister and his wife." In the first wave, around 200 of Indian paratroopers had arrived, subsequently, 1000 more entered the country to rescue the President.
The Indian troops went from Hulhule to Male on a boat and secured the President inside the National Security Services building in the capital. Meanwhile, the rebels took off in a civilian boat. "The INS Betwa set sail from Cochin, INS Godavari which was returning from Australia was diverted and INS TIR returning from Seychelles was also diverted, in a bid to stop them from escaping. The Indian ships fired on the rebel ship forcing the rebels to surrender."