1987 grenade attack in the Sri Lankan Parliament
| 1987 grenade attack in the Sri Lankan Parliament | |
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The location of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, which is situated on an island in the Diyawanna Oya
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| Location | Parliament of Sri Lanka, Sri Jayawardenepura |
| Coordinates | 6°53′14″N 79°55′07″E / 6.887174°N 79.918646°ECoordinates: 6°53′14″N 79°55′07″E / 6.887174°N 79.918646°E |
| Date | August 18, 1987 9:00am (UTC+5.50) |
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Attack type
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Grenade attack |
| Deaths | 2 |
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Non-fatal injuries
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16 |
| Perpetrators | Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna |
The 1987 grenade attack in the Sri Lankan Parliament took place on August 18, 1987, when an assailant hurled 2 grenades into a room where government Members of Parliament were meeting. The grenades bounced off the table at which Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayawardene and Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa were sitting, and rolled away. A Member of Parliament and a Ministry secretary were killed by the explosions.
A subsequent Police investigation concluded that the grenades were thrown by a member of the banned Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) organization, which was staging a rebellion in the country at the time. 5 members of the JVP were eventually put on trial for the attack, but were acquitted, due to lack of evidence. It is believed the attack targeted President Jayawardene for his signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord a few weeks earlier.
Beginning in 1983, Tamil militants began a war of insurrection with the objective of establishing an independent Tamil nation in the north and east of Sri Lanka. 6,000 people had died as a result of the conflict by 1987. In May 1987, the Sri Lanka Army launched a major offensive to defeat the Tamil rebels; the operation was a success, and the rebels were cornered in a small part of the Jaffna Peninsula. Sri Lankan military commanders believed that they would be able to totally defeat the militants within a few weeks
However, the Indian government became increasingly involved in the conflict, because southern India was the home of 50 million Tamils, who sympathized with the Tamil militants in Sri Lanka. As the Sri Lankan army was closing in on the rebels, India Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi ordered an airdrop of materials to the besieged rebels, which Sri Lankan president J. R. Jayawardene termed a “naked act of aggression” by India.
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Wikipedia