Eighty Tamil mercenaries, hired by a Maldivian businessman, landed in the capital of Malé before dawn. They arrived on a hijacked freighter, quickly seized key government buildings, and announced the overthrow of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. The president hid in a safe room and sent a radio plea for international help. His request went to India, the United States, and the United Kingdom. India, under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, responded within hours. By nightfall, 1,600 Indian troops from the 50th Independent Paratroop Brigade were airborne in a fleet of Il-76 transport planes.
This intervention, codenamed Operation Cactus, was a strategic demonstration of regional power. India acted as the regional security guarantor, preventing a violent regime change in a neighboring island nation. The Indian paratroopers landed at Hulhulé airport, engaged the mercenaries, and secured the capital within a day. Nineteen people died in the fighting. The mercenaries attempted to flee with hostages on the hijacked ship but were pursued by the Indian Navy and captured.
The event is obscure outside South Asia but remains a cornerstone of Maldivian political memory. It cemented the political survival of President Gayoom, who ruled for another two decades. For India, it was a successful projection of military force and diplomatic resolve, a contrast to its troubled peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka at the same time.
The coup attempt’s origins were almost operatically bizarre. The plot was financed by Abdullah Luthufi, a Maldivian businessman living in Sri Lanka, who sought to install a puppet government. He recruited the mercenaries from the People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam, a Sri Lankan militant group. Their failure underscored the fragility of small-state sovereignty and the immediate reach of larger regional powers. The swift Indian action left no doubt about which power controlled the Indian Ocean’s central archipelago.