Maldives, 1988 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
On 3 November 1988 the most serious of the coup attempts against President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives unfolded when around eighty to one hundred armed mercenaries of the Tamil separatist group PLOTE, the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam, together with a handful of Maldivian dissidents led by the businessman Abdullah Luthufi, landed by sea in the capital Male. The raiders quickly seized much of the city, capturing radio and television facilities and attacking the headquarters of the National Security Service, but they failed to take the president: Gayoom went into hiding in a safe house within Male and issued urgent appeals for foreign help. Only India responded in force.
Within hours of the distress call, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi launched Operation Cactus, airlifting paratroopers of the 50th Independent Parachute Brigade over three thousand kilometers to land at Male's airport, secure it, and cross to the capital to rescue Gayoom and rout the mercenaries. The attempt left around nineteen dead. Fleeing rebels who hijacked a freighter were chased down and captured by the Indian Navy, cementing a lasting India Maldives bond.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
78111031988
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom survived the November 1988 mercenary coup after Indian paratroopers rescued him.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; fled the country. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Wikipedia
New York Times
Washington Post
Chicago Tribune
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →