The visiting Indian Army Chief General V K Singh today paid floral tributes at the IPKF memorial for the soldiers and officers who lost their lives during the LTTE war between 1987 and 1989. He is the first Indian Army Chief to have paid homage at the memorial since the time it was erected. Nearly 1100 officers and soldiers had laid their lives to preserve the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka. The monument immortalizes the memory of those who had made the supreme sacrifice for restoration of peace in another nation. ‘I appreciate from the bottom of my heart on behalf of the entire Indian army our gratitude to the government of Sri Lanka for this memorial to pay homage to the brave martyrs of the IPKF who laid down their lives from 1987 to 1989’, the Army chief said in his comments in the visitors book.Speaking on the occasion, the Adjutant General of the Sri Lanka army (Maj gen) EPD Abeysekara said that the ‘Indian army being highly a professional army had taken all the trouble to be part of the biggest issue we had in the country of fighting a very brutal organisation militant group, the LTTE.’The sri Lankan army fighting this battle for three long decades always remember the period of IPKF deployment in Sri lanka with gratitude and high appreciation to all those who served on our mother land making high commitment and contribution’, he said.’Such commitment carries a value beyond words of appreciation and remembered for life as we stand here today and pay our highest respect to all those of IPKF who laid down their souls for our Mother land’, he said.Top brass of the Sri Lankan Army including their commander Lt General Jagath Jayasurya and the Chief of Staff Major General R M D Ratnayake were present for the wreath laying ceremony . Earlier in the day Gen. Singh called on the island nation’s President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister, D.M. Jayaratne and held discussions on matters related to defence cooperation between Sri Lanka and India with the Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and the three service chiefs.