COLOMBO: In the presence of the visiting Chief of Staff of the Indian Army, Gen V K Singh, the Sri Lankan army on Monday paid rich tributes to the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) which was deployed in the island nation from July 1987 to March 1990 to implement the India-Sri Lanka Accord.
“The IPKF had won the Sri Lankans’ gratitude and appreciation and they would be remembered for life,” said Lankan army’s Adjutant General, Maj Gen E P D Abeysekera.
Gen Singh and the Commander of the Sri Lankan army, Lt Gen Jagath Jayasuriya, laid wreaths at the monument for the IPKF here.
Writing in the visitors’ book, Gen Singh said that he was grateful to the Lankan army “from the bottom of the heart” for erecting a monument for the IPKF.
He described the fallen men of the IPKF as “brave martyrs” and said that he considered it a “supreme honour” that he himself was part of that force.
The monument, which is in the shape of a Cambodian stupa, and which is surrounded by pillars with the Indian lion symbol atop, has inscribed on it the names and the units of all the 1,165 officers and men who were killed in action. Over 3,000 others had been wounded.