NEW DELHI: Newly elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ties with India will be tested on not only his family’s close ties with China but also his links with Pakistan As a young army officer in the early 1970s, Rajapaksa was sent to Pakistan for an officers’ training course at a time when Sri Lanka maintained strong relations with Pakistan, ET has learnt. Later, during the war with the LTTE, when he was the defence secretary under his brother Mahinda’s presidency, Pakistan military supported the Sri Lankan army.Pakistan was quick to congratulate Rajapaksa on his victory, like India, and expressed the hope that the new dispensation in Colombo would reverse some of the earlier decisions vis-à-vis Pakistan, according to people aware of the matter.While current PM Ranil Wickremasinghe backed India on Kashmir and earlier boycott of SAARC Summit to be held in Islamabad in 2016, all eyes will be on Sri Lanka’s Pakistan policy under Rajapaksa. Wickremasinghe could be replaced soon, according to reports from Colombo.“He (Ranil Wickremesinghe) is so close to India that his attitude towards Pakistan remained cold. Had (Sajith) Premadasa won the election, it would have been a disaster for Pakistan,” a Pakistan Foreign Office official told Pakistani English daily Express Tribune on condition of anonymity. “For Pakistan, the election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa is certainly a positive development.”It may be recalled that during the 1971 unrest that led to the creation of Bangladesh, after India withdrew landing and overflight rights to Pakistan, Sri Lanka granted refuelling facilities to Pakistan International Airlines. In March-April 1971, as the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight to crush the independence movement in East Pakistan, Pakistani civilian and military aircraft made 174 landings at Katunayake international airport.During the last decade of civil war involving the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Pakistani military and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) developed close links with Sri Lanka’s military including supply of defence equipment. According to The News of Pakistan, pilots of Pakistan Air Force participated in air strikes against LTTE bases in August 2008. Pakistan also deputed some of its army officers to Colombo to guide the Sri Lankan security forces in their operations.The ISI had for years been trying to get a foothold in Sri Lanka and one of its officers was once even targeted by the LTTE in Colombo. The ISI also tried to fish in troubled waters following tensions between Sinhala majority and Muslims in Sri Lanka, hoping to recruit for terrorist organisations, according to people aware of the matter.