Ceylonese government victory Ceylon Military intervention: Rohana Wijeweera Wijesena Vidanage (Sanath)  † W.T.Karunnarathe N. Jayasinghe (Loku Athula) P. Kumarasiri  (POW) Police: 37 killed; 195 wounded

The insurgents held towns and rural areas for several weeks, until the regions were recaptured by the armed forces, following strong support from friendly nations that sent men and material.

The Soviet Union sent 60 air-force troops;[8] India guarded the forts, stopping North Korean vessels and a Chinese freighter which raided the harbours.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) movement was founded during the late 1960s by Rohana Wijeweera, a former Lumumba University medical student and Ceylon Communist Party functionary.

[9][clarification needed] Initially known also as the New Left, the group attracted students and unemployed rural youth (most between ages 16 and 25) who felt that their economic interests had been neglected by the nation's leftist coalitions.

The standard program of indoctrination, the "Five Lectures", included discussions of Indian imperialism (expansionism), the growing economic crisis, the failure of the island's communist and socialist parties, and the need for a sudden, violent seizure of power.

Because of the subversive tone of his publications, the United National Party (UNP) government had Wijeweera arrested at Hambantota on 12 May, days before the general elections in May.

In the politically tolerant atmosphere of the next few months, as the new government attempted to win over a variety of unorthodox leftist groups, the JVP intensified its public campaign and secret preparations for a revolt.

Although their group was relatively small, the members hoped to immobilize the government by selective kidnapping and sudden, simultaneous strikes against security forces throughout the island.

[17] It lacked tanks, field artillery, automatic rifles, submachine guns and other modern weapons, and peacetime ammunition stocks could sustain only one week of combat operations.

The Royal Ceylon Navy, which had suffered the most from the fallout of the attempted coup (its recruitment had been frozen until 1969) had only one frigate, HMCyS Gajabahu in its fleet along with a few Thorneycroft coastal motor boats.

Early warnings came from the Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which had been tasked with internal security with its late-1969 and early-1970 establishment of the "Che Guevara Desk" under ASP K. C. de Silva.

John Attygalle, former Inspector General of Police who had been appointed special security advisor to the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence, submitted a report on the new group's potential threat to Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake's government.

[1] In 1970, a parcel sent by the People's Socialist Republic of Albania containing Chinese-made rifles was captured by the police; other similar incidents occurred at the beginning of the insurgency.

After a lull since October 1970, the JVP held a large public rally on 27 February 1971 at Colombo's Hyde Park, where Wijeweera said: "Let the revolution of the workers, farmers, and soldiers be triumphant".

The group, consisting of S. V. A. Piyathilaka, Lionel Bopage, Jayadeva Uyangoda, Sunanda Deshpriya, Loku Athula, W. T. Karunarathne, Susi L. Wickrama, Wijesena Vidanage (alias Sanath), Somasiri Kumanayake and Anura Ranjith Kurukulasooriya, decided that all police stations in the country would be attacked on 5 April at 11:00 pm.

The district leader for Monaragala and Wellawaya was not at the meeting, and the decision to attack was conveyed via a paid radio obituary notice by Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation that read: "JVP Appuhamy expired.

The targets were Welikada Prison, Srawasthi, Radio Ceylon and the homes of government officials, including Justice Minister Felix Dias Bandaranaike, the Army Commander and the IGP.

Following the attack, soon after dawn on 5 April, Major General D. S. Attygalle, Commander of the Ceylon Army ordered a platoon of the 1st Battalion, Gemunu Watch from Diyatalawa to Wellawaya.

A curfew was declared in parts of the island, all police stations were warned of an impending attack, and Attygalle ordered the army to begin mobilization.

[26] Several JVP cadres were arrested at Viharamahadevi Park on 5 April as they prepared to abduct (or assassinate) Prime Minister Bandaranaike at her private residence at Rosemead Place.

[17] Former Inspector General of Police (IGP) S. A. Dissanayake was appointed Additional Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence, and coordinated the government's defense from the situation room at Temple Trees.

The United Kingdom was the first to respond positively, allowing the Ceylonese government to use an Air Ceylon Trident to ferry small arms and ammunition from its bases in Singapore within four days of the initial attack.

On 22 April, Soviet Air Force Antonov An-22 transporters flew in with five Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F fighter bombers, a MiG-15 UTI trainer, and two Kamov Ka-26 helicopters.

[4] In April, a Chinese freighter raided a harbour; it was turned back by Indian warships maintaining a naval cordon around Ceylon's coast.

Having withdrawn to defensible locations such as major cities and towns, the government brought time to replenish its limited stocks of ammunition and receive new weapons.

The regular personnel of the armed services were soon supplemented by the mobilization of reservists (most of whom were World War II veterans) and while Pakistani and Indian troops that were flown in took over the defense of key installations such as airports and harbors.

The Yugoslavian mountain guns were deployed in Kegalle to flush out insurgents and by late April many suspected JVP members were captured, arrested or surrendered.

Two JVP leaders, Sanath (Wijesena Vidanage) and Susil, were killed in confrontations with the armed forces; Loku Athula, who led the remnants of his group from Kegalle into the jungles of Wilpattu, was wounded and captured.

Many of the surviving JVP leaders received prison sentences; some, including Loku Athula and Somasiri Kumanayake, turned crown witness and were pardoned.