{{Short description|Sri Lankan military title}} {{More footnotes|date=May 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}} {{EngvarB|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox official post | post = Overall Operational Commander | formation = 1979 | reports_to = Chief of the Defence Staff | department = Army, Navy, Air Force and Police | type = Overall Operations Commander of all security forces and Police units within a certain area or in a theatre of operation | first = Brigadier Tissa Weeratunga | incumbent = Major General Sathyapriya Liyanage | incumbentsince = 29 April 2019 | flag = | insignia = | style = Overall Operational Commander | precursor = Major General Shantha Kottegoda }}'''Overall Operational Commander''' is the title held by the most senior commander in a theatre of operation at certain times in Sri Lanka.
==History== It originated as a term Officer Commanding Troops of the Ceylon Army, when a senior officer was put in charge of multiple units in a geographical area. With the escalation of the Tamil militancy in the Jaffna Peninsula, President J. R. Jayawardene dispatched Brigadier Tissa Weeratunga to Jaffna as Commander Security Forces - Jaffna, with extensive powers under the provisions of Prevention of Terrorism (Special Provisions) Act No: 48 of 1979. Brigadier Weeratunga served as Commander Security Forces - Jaffna from 13 July 1979 to 31 December 1979 undertaking counter insurgency operations to reduce militant activities. In October 1981, Brigadier J. G. Balthazar was appointed Commander Security Forces - Jaffna following an increase of militant activities.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=82009 |title=The Island |website=www.island.lk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628063638/http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=82009 |archive-date=2013-06-28}} </ref>
==List of Commanders== *Brigadier Tissa Weeratunga - Commander Security Forces - Jaffna (1979) *Brigadier J. G. Balthazar - Commander Security Forces - Jaffna (1981-1984) *Brigadier Nalin Seneviratne - Commander Security Forces - Jaffna (1984-1985) *Brigadier G. H. De Silva - Overall Operations Commander, Operation Liberation (1987) *Major General Denzil Kobbekaduwa - Overall Operations Commander, Northern Sector (1990-1992) *Major General Rohan Daluwatte - Overall Operations Commander, North and East (1994-1995) *Major General Janaka Perera - Overall Operations Commander, North (2000) *Major General Shantha Kottegoda - Overall Operations Commander, East (2004)<ref>{{cite web |title=MAJOR GEN KOTTEGODA APPOINTED OVERALL OPERATIONAL COMMANDER (EAST) |url=https://www.army.lk/news/major-gen-kottegoda-appointed-overall-operational-commander-east |publisher=Sri Lanka Army |accessdate=19 May 2020}}</ref> *Major General Sathyapriya Liyanage - Overall Operational Commander, Overall Operational Command (2019)<ref>{{cite news |title=Overall Operational Commander of SLA |url=http://www.ft.lk/front-page/Overall-Operational-Commander-of-SLA/44-677291 |accessdate=6 September 2019 |publisher=Financial Times}}</ref>
==See also== *Operation Combine
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Sri Lanka Army appointments Army