Faced with the prospect of Indian military involvement to support the militants, Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayawardene was pressured into signing the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord on July 29, 1987. It called for Tamil rebels to lay down their arms, in exchange for limited autonomy in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Jayawardene also agreed to have India send troops to Sri Lanka to enforce the accord. The accord proved highly unpopular amongst both the Sinhalese groups and the Tamil groups in the country, who saw it as a sellout to India, and the Indian troops as an expansionist force.
