1988 Maldives coup attempt

1988 Maldives coup d'état attempt
	Part of Indian Intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war
	; Indian Air Force Ilyushin Il-76 planes like this one were used in Cactus. (This image was taken at an unrelated location in Hawaii, United States decades after 1988.)
Date	3 November 1988
Location	Maldives, Indian Ocean
Result	Indian & Maldivian victory Coup failed;
Belligerents
India; Maldives	People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam; Maldivian rebels
Commanders and leaders
R. Venkataraman; Rajiv Gandhi; Maumoon Abdul Gayoom; Vice Admiral S.V.V. Gopalachari; Brigadier Farouk Bulsara; Colonel Subhash Joshi; Major (later Brig) Rupinder Dhillon; Major (later Lt Gen) Vinod Bhatia	Uma Maheswaran; Wasanti †; Abdullah Luthufi (POW); Sagaru Ahmed Nasir (POW); Ahmed Ismail Manik Sikka (POW)
Units involved
Indian Armed Forces Indian Army Parachute Regiment; ; Indian Navy; Indian Air Force; ; Maldives National Defence Force	Unknown
Strength
500 Indian paratroopers; Maldives National Defense Force	100 to 200 mercenaries
Casualties and losses
19 killed (8 NSS), 39 injured (18 NSS). 4 hostages killed, 3 hostages unaccounted for No casualties occurred during the operation carried out by PARA SF (India) from Indian Side.	Most of the mercenaries were killed and some were captured. 27 hostages taken, 20 were retrieved. 4 killed and the other 3 unknown.

The 1988 Maldives coup d'état attempt was an attempt by a group of Sri Lankans and Maldivians led by businessman Abdullah Luthufee and assisted by armed mercenaries of a Tamil secessionist organization from Sri Lanka, the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), to overthrow the government of the Republic of Maldives. The attempt was thwarted with Indian assistance in Operation Cactus.