New Delhi, Nov. 7 -- In a swift operation, crack Indian paratroopers on November 4 successfully crushed the coup bid by foreign mercenaries in the Maldives and helped President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to secure full control of the strategic island republic in the Indian Ocean. As a result of the operation that ended around 2.30am, the paratroopers who were airlifted from Indian bases chased away 400 mercenaries said to have been recruited by disgruntled expatriate Maldivian citizens. The coup bid thus collapsed in less than 24 hours after the mercenaries had stormed the Presidential Palace and national security headquarters in Male, the capital, on the morning of November 3. The Indian forces intercepted one of the two boats from which the mer...