An Indian human-rights activist who went on a 16-year hunger strike against a controversial army law ended it yesterday with a lick of honey.
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When she appeared in front of reporters, Sharmila had removed her nose tube. “If I become chief minister, the first thing I will do is to remove the AFSPA”, she told reporters here. She was released on bail on Tuesday by L. Tonsing, chief judicial magistrate, Imphal west, where she was produced.
Sharmila ended her fast by taking honey in a special ward at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences here.
But Ms Irom Chanu Sharmila, 44, often known as the Iron Lady of Manipur, would continue her fight by contesting next year’s elections in the north-eastern state.
Although she was given security guards considering the threat perception to her life due to her decision to end fast, Sharmila said that she does not need any security.
Ms Sharmila has been seeking the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (Afspa), which gives soldiers the right to enter houses and shoot on sight with impunity, in her home state of Manipur.
Critics of the law say it is used to cover up massive human rights abuses in Manipur, which has suffered a decades-long armed insurgency fighting for independence from India.
She was arrested shortly after she began her hunger strike and charged with attempting to commit suicide – a criminal offence under the law.
But she would immediately fast in a shed near the hospital, and authorities would re-arrest her within days.
“The only way to bring change is electoral process”, Sharmila said last month, according to a statement from Amnesty International.
Sharmila said she meant to settle in an ashram, or religious center, rather than go home.
She added that she was trying a “new form of agitation” because she had “not got anything from it [fasting] yet”. She was involved in peace movements locally when she witnessed the Malom massacre in which ten civilians were killed by the Assam Rifles, who were acting under AFSPA.
During the hearing, Sharmila pleaded the Court to release her unconditionally as she wished to end her marathon hunger strike.
She wants to contest the Manipur election next year as an independent candidate.
The activist said that the law has been misused by security forces.
She has been held in judicial custody nearly ever since, and has spent much of the last 16 years confined to a hospital ward.
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Sharmila has been appealing to all sections of the people to support her cause.
