DiplomacyMGR era

Indo-Sri Lanka Accord signed

· Colombo

An accord between India and Sri Lanka on the Tamil issue led to the dispatch of the Indian Peace Keeping Force to the island.

Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, and J. R. Jayewardene, President of Sri Lanka, put their signatures to the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in Colombo on 29 July 1987. Under its terms, Tamil militant groups were to give up their weapons and power was to be devolved to a combined Northern and Eastern province. India deployed the Indian Peace Keeping Force on the island, and its subsequent fighting with the LTTE stirred controversy in Tamil Nadu. For years afterwards the agreement influenced how the state's politics dealt with the Eelam question.

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