Three days into her fast, she was arrested on charges of attempting suicide and has been force fed through a tube in her nose since then.
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After the court ordered her release, Sharmila resumed her hunger strike, according to her lawyer, and she was placed back into custody.
Her mother Sakhi has refused to meet her while her elder brother I. Shinghajit, in an open letter, made an impassioned appeal to her to continue the fast.
Sharmila still wants to overturn the security law, but her new plan for achieving this is to run in the Manipur state elections early next year.
The Armed Forces Special Powers Act is in effect in Indian-ruled Kashmir and in a number of north-eastern areas facing separatist insurgencies. It also gives police wide-ranging powers of search and seizure.
“I went on a fast for about 16 years thinking I could change the system, but I now realise that this will not yield any result”.
Sharmila launched her hunger strike in November 2000 after a battalion of the Assam Rifles allegedly gunned down 10 civilians in a village near Imphal.
She vowed to unseat her state’s Chief Minister, Okram Ibobi Singh.
Imphal: Manipur’s “Iron Lady” Irom Sharmila, who broke her 16-year-old hunger strike yesterday, is now under supervision at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) and has been put on a special liquid diet.
“They misunderstood me, about my real being”, Sharmila told ANI news agency while reacting to news of protests against her in Manipur.
In his judgement, Magistrate Lamkkhanpau Tonsing said Irom was released on grounds that she submitted bail of 10,000 rupees ($150) and a written pledge to stop her fast.
Asked whether she was a woman in love, Sharmila replied: “It is natural”.
Admitting that her love for Desmond Cutinho, a Goa-born British national, has been one of the factors behind changing her mind, she said, “I am human being”.
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Human Rights Watch has called India to repeal the immunity law, saying India’s troops “routinely engage in torture and other ill-treatment during interrogation in army barracks”. She’ll remain at the hospital temporarily until an official court order comes through, Human Rights Alert Executive Director Babloo Ioitongbam said.
