The OPVs also helped when injured soldiers had to be airlifted from deep inside LTTE-held territory.

The author quotes Sri Lanka's Navy Chief Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda to underline the Indian Navy's contribution in locating and destroying at least 10 'floating warehouses' owned and used by the LTTE for storing arms, ammunition and even armoured personnel carriers.

According to Indian and Sri Lankan Navy sources quoted by the author in his book, well-coordinated operations by the two navies between 2006 and 2009 actually broke the backbone of the LTTE's Sea Tigers.

Intelligence-sharing also proved crucial. The Indian Navy's Dorniers, fitted with powerful radars, based at Ramnad in Tamil Nadu flew regular reconnaissance missions over the seas around Sri Lanka.

'Whenever a suspicious ship was detected, the Indian Navy passed on the information to the Sri Lankans. The real time intelligence helped Sri Lankan Navy to track and then destroy the LTTE arms consignments,' says Gokhale, who covered the last phase of Sri Lanka's battle against Tamil Tigers for NDTV.

The book also recounts vividly the last days of LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran, who pioneered the cult of suicide bombers and tormented the Sri Lankan state and people for three decades.

Ordering the assassination of former prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi proved to be a major strategic error on the part of the charismatic guerrilla leader, the author writes.

Gokhale also provides an insight into the Sri Lankan government's winning strategy for the decimation of the LTTE that ended Asia's longest-running insurgency.