An embodiment of insurgency-wracked Manipur’s fight against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), human-rights activist Irom Sharmila Tuesday ended her 16-year hunger strike against the 1958 law.
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Sharmila launched her hunger strike in 2000 after security forces killed 10 people near her home following a rebel attack on a military convoy.
Sharmila, known as Manipurs Iron lady, began her fast in 2000 demanding repealing of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur.
She urged Prime Minister Modi to follow the path of non-violence and ride India of draconian laws and give fatherly affection to all.
Responding to questions from media, both global and national, Sharmila, who is popularly known as Iron Lady of Manipur, said that she wants to become the Chief Minister of the state by contesting in elections to bring a positive change and remove the AFSPA.
After ending the fast, Sharmila said she wants to become the chief minister of Manipur so that she could repeal the contentious AFSPA.
Outside court in Manipur’s capital of Imphal earlier on Tuesday, she said she wanted to live like a “normal human being” and pledged to contest state elections due next year.
The Indian activist Irom Sharmila, nicknamed the “Iron Lady of Manipur”, was 28 when ten civilians were killed after a government-controlled paramilitary force opened fired on a crowd of civilians waiting at a bus stop in a small Indian village.
August 9 is a symbolically significant date in India, marking the start of the Quit India Movement against British colonial rule 75 years ago to the day.
She also wants to marry. “From today onwards I have ended my fast”, she told reporters.
This allowed officials to force-feed her.
“My fight so far has been all alone and so I have made a decision to wage a war against the (AFSPA) act democratically by becoming a lawmaker instead of continuing with my fast”, she told reporters at the time. “My education is very, very low.But I will use everything I have for the society”, Sharmila said.
Her lawyer further said that Sharmila will be released and taken into the judicial custody.
Until Tuesday, Sharmila had not taken food or drink by mouth, and was fed by plastic tube in her nose.
Sharmila has been appealing to all sections of the people to support her cause.
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The 44-year-old iconic rights activist is, however, yet to walk out of her jail ward at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences here pending the release order.
