Patriotic People's Armed Troops (;

abbreviated An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...

DJS or PPAt) was a militant organization in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. The organization was recognized as a military arm of the

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP; , PLF) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was formerly a revolutionary movement and was involved in two armed uprisings against the government of Sri Lanka: once in 1971 JVP ins ...

(JVP; People's Liberation Front), which was attempting to overthrow the

government of Sri Lanka The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) (; ) is a Semi-presidential republic determined by the Constitution of Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Constitution. It administers the island from both its commercial capital of Colombo and the administrative capital o ...

Background of foundation

The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed in Colombo on 29 July 1987, between

Indian Prime Minister The prime minister of India (ISO: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the e ...

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian statesman and pilot who served as the prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the Assassination of Indira Gandhi, assassination of his mother, then–prime ...

and Sri Lankan President

J. R. Jayewardene Junius Richard Jayewardene (; ; 17 September 1906 – 1 November 1996), commonly referred to by his initials JR, was a Sri Lankan lawyer, public official and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1978 and as the secon ...

. The accord was expected to resolve the Sri Lankan Civil War by enabling the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. It brought the Provincial Councils Act of 1987. Under the terms of the agreement, Colombo agreed to give limited autonomy to the provinces, Indian Army unit,

Indian Peace Keeping Force Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lanka ...

(IPKF) was deployed to militarily protect the accord.

Southern insurgency

As the accord was seen by Sinhalese extremists as a conscious betrayal by the government of Sri Lanka,

(JVP), led an insurgency in

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

west West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

, and

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

of the country; it formed multiple organizations in around the

Peradeniya Peradeniya (; ) is a suburb of the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka with about 30,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the A1 main road, a few kilometres west of Kandy city centre. Peradeniya's name is derived from ''pera'' (guava) and ''deniya'' (a plain ...

area, organizations that received training under the JVP were affiliated to the

Socialist Students' Union Socialist Students Union of Sri Lanka (SSU), also known as Samajavadi Shishya Sangamaya, is a students' union in Sri Lanka that operates as the students' wing of the Marxist-Leninist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. It is currently a member of the ...

Operation

The PPAt along with the DJV were frontal organizations of the JVP. Between 1987–1989 JVP carried out attacks on civilians and raids against

Sri Lanka Armed Forces The Sri Lanka Armed Forces is the overall unified military of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka encompassing the Sri Lanka Army, the Sri Lanka Navy, and the Sri Lanka Air Force; they are governed by the Ministry of Defence (Sri Lank ...

(SLAF) military installments. The PPAt was operating as a military arm of the JVP; it raided the Sri Lankan Army camp in Pallekele, John Kotelawela Defense Academy, and the

SLAF Katunayake Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) (commonly known as Colombo International Airport, Colombo–Bandaranaike International Airport, and locally as Katunayake International Airport) (IATA: CMB, ICAO: VCBI) is the main international airport ...

Sri Lanka Air Force base. Similarly, multiple other military arms affiliated to the JVP carried out attacks under the orders of the Joint Command of the PPAt. On April 29, 1988, the Joint Command ordered the attack on the Pannala Air Force base. Over 500 weapons and 50,000 rounds of ammunition were taken.

Death threats

The Joint Command, Patriotic People's Armed Troops issued death threats calling government troops ( SLA, SLAiF, SLN) desert their ranks and to join the PPAt. A communique revealed that the Joint Command had ordered its armed troops to eliminate individuals who refuse to collaborate. It said that they would not just be dealt as ''traitors'' but also ''enemies of the country'' by the PPAt.

Notes

Bibliography