By P.K.Balachandran
Colombo, July 24 – The month of July had seen tide-turning events in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan in recent times.
The “Liberation movement” that resulted in the overthrow of the 11-year dictatorial regime of Shaikh Hasina was lit on July 15, 2024. On that day, the ruling Awami League’s students wing Chhatra League attacked students at Dhaka University who were protesting against an iniquitous quota system.
Awami League goons attacked wounded demonstrators inside and outside Dhaka Medical College Hospital. More than 300 were injured on both sides. The two-week violent student’s movement led to Shaikh Hasina’s fleeing the country on August 5, ushering in a new era for Bangladesh.
Sri Lanka
July has been a very significant month in the recent history of Sri Lanka too. It was in July 2022, that, for the first time in the island country’s history, that the offices and residences of the President and the Prime Minister were stormed and occupied by agitators in a mass movement called “Aragalaya”.
For the first time in Sri Lanka’s history, the Prime Minister’s personal residence, housing thousands of books and works of art, was burnt to ashes by an insensate rabble. The victims were President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
July 2022 was witness the extraordinary spectacle of a nominated MP whose party had not won a single seat in parliament in the general elections, being elected President of Sri Lanka, not by the public as per the constitution but by members of parliament, none of whom belonged to his party. That nominated MP was Ranil Wickremesinghe.
It was in July 1983 that Colombo saw an unprecedented anti-Tamil riots, which, according to former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, claimed about 1000 lives, destroyed 18,000 properties, and forced the migration of 700,000 Tamils out of Sri Lanka.
On July 25, 1983, for the first time in the history of Sri Lankan prisons, 37 Tamil militants detained in the Welikade prison in Colombo were killed with knives and clubs by Sinhalese fellow prisoners.
The July 1983 anti-Tamil riots led to the intensification of Tamil militancy, which along with the muscular State response, devastated Sri Lanka till peace was restored in May 2009.
On July 12, 1983, Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene had told the London-based Daily Telegraph – “I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna people now. Now we can’t think of them. Not about their lives or their opinion about us… on terrorist issues. We are going to deal with them ourselves, without any quarter being given”.
The regulation permitting the police to dispose of dead bodies without a judicial inquiry was extended island-wide with effect from July 18, 1983, a week before the commencement of the riots.
First Suicide Bombing
Come July 1987, Sri Lanka saw the first of many suicide bombings. On July 5, 1987, Vallipuram Vasanthan alias Capt. Miller, a cadre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), drove a truck laden with explosives into a Sri Lankan army camp at Nelliady in Jaffna killing 40 soldiers. This day was observed as ‘Black Tiger Day’ by the LTTE and its supporters till the end of the war in 2009.
After Nelliady, hundreds of suicide attacks took place. According to the LTTE, between 1987 and 2008, 356 suicide cadres, called ‘Black Tigers’, had laid down their lives, 254 of them in sea operations.
India-Sri Lanka Accord
The India-Sri Lanka Accord was signed by Lankan President J.R.Jayewardene and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on July 29, 1987, to end the fighting between the government forces and the LTTE and lay the foundation for the devolution of power to the provinces, principally the Tamil-speaking North-Eastern province.
But the Accord got a violent public reception. A day after the Accord (July 30), Rajiv Gandhi was hit on the neck by a naval rating participating in the Guard of Honour at the Presidential palace. Following the Accord, the opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led an agitation and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) took to violence. The JVP’s military wing, Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya (DJV), attacked the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), which was stationed in the North and East.
After reluctantly accepting the Accord, the LTTE began a war against the IPKF in October 1987 that left 1165 Indian soldiers dead and 3009 wounded between October 1987 and March 1990.
Annihilation of Major Army Base
On July 18, 1996, the Mullaitivu Sri Lankan army base was overrun by the LTTE. 1400 Sri Lankan soldiers’ and 300 LTTE cadres were killed in this daring attack. On July 24, 1996, bombs placed by the LTTE in railway carriages in Dehiwela station, killed 64 passengers and injured 140.
Airport Disabled
The next major LTTE strike was at the Bandaranaike International Airport cum Air Force base near Colombo. On July 24, 2001, fourteen LTTE Black Tiger cadres, armed with RPGs, anti-tank weapons and assault rifles, infiltrated the airport in the night, cut off the power supply, and destroyed or damaged 26 military aircraft including jet fighters and choppers. Parked Airbus civilian aircraft were also damaged causing a loss of US$ 350 million. Sri Lanka’s tourist industry caved in and the country’s GDP growth became negative as a result of the attack on the country’s only international airport.
Controversial Hambantota Port
On July 29, 2017, a very controversial agreement was signed by Sri Lanka, leasing out Hambantota port for 99 years to a Chinese State-owned company for US$ 1.1 billion. Sri Lanka said that the money was needed to pay off foreign debts. The Chinese agreed not to use the port for military purposes. But India and the West had apprehensions about China’s using the port as a naval base.
India
It was on July 18, 1946, that the British parliament passed the India Independence Act. India got independence the next year in August. On July 26, 1949, the first India-Pakistan war over Kashmir ended with the finalization of the Ceasefire Line, which has held to this day.
On July 2, 1972, India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement which laid the foundation for India-Pakistan bilateral relations and enabled the repatriation of 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war captured in the 1971 war in East Pakistan.
On July 26, 1999, India-Pakistan war over Kargil in Kashmir ended with the intervention of the US. On July 15, 2001, Pakistan President Parvez Musharaff and Indian Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee had a summit in Agra. At the summit, Musharraf proposed a “four-point solution” for the Kashmir dispute. It included the demilitarisation or phased withdrawal of troops and no change in the borders of Kashmir.
The solution also proposed that the people of Jammu & Kashmir should be allowed to move freely across the Line of Control (LoC) and also pushed for self-governance without independence and a joint supervision mechanism in Jammu and Kashmir involving India, Pakistan and Kashmir. But nothing came of it as there was opposition to it in India.
Pakistan
Pakistan too saw important events taking place in July. On July 1, 1970, the One Unit system under which all provinces of West Pakistan had been treated as one unit, came to an end. The pre-existing provinces like Punjab, Sind and Balochistan were revived.
On July 5, 1977, Army chief, Gen.Zia-ul-Haq, declared martial law and took over the government of Pakistan. He ruled till his death in an air accident in August,17, 1988. Zia’s main contribution was the Islamization of Pakistan including its army.
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