Irom Chanu Sharmila to Break her Fast

August 09, 2016 10:40

Manipur's 'Iron Lady' Irom Chanu Sharmila is going to stop her fast in Imphal which she started 16 years back. The main reason she sat on hunger strike was to demand repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.

According to Irom Singhajit brother of Sharmila (44) was forcibly fed through a nasal tube since 2000 to keep her alive at a prison-turned-hospital.

"She will be produced before a judicial magistrate tomorrow and the court will release her from judicial custody after she breaks her fast as she had announced a fortnight ago," he said on Monday.

Sharmila Kunba Lup forum supporters and women activists will be meeting her as she starts her new journey. Sharmila's 84-year-old mother Shakhi Devi will not meet her till her daughter’s demands are fulfilled.

"She will not go there to meet her. She is waiting for the moment of her victory which will come only when AFSPA is repealed," Singhajit, who will be present at the courtroom today, said.

Sharmila’s family and her supporters were not been able to meet her since July 26. She announced that she will join politics to ensure that AFSPA is repealed through political means.

"We don't know where she will go after her release. If she wants to come home and stay with us, we are ready to welcome her. But it is her desire," her brother said.

Local activist Kshetrimayum Onil, who has been associated with Ms Sharmila for a long time, said “they tried many times but failed to meet her to discuss the future strategy on AFSPA. The government rules say that to meet her we have to apply at least one month before. We tried but failed to set up a meeting.”

Her brother also said “iam waiting to meet Sharmila today to discuss future strategies”.

Doctors attending Sharmila said “she might have to be kept on a liquid diet for the next few days as her body might not be able to digest solid food all of a sudden. A person who has not eaten solid food for 16 years cannot start it suddenly. She has to start slowly and gradually in small quantities.”

"Her condition is okay as she has been getting all nutrients. She can walk also," Dr Laishram Deben, director of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital, said.

On November 2, 2000 an Assam Rifles battalion killed 10 civilians in a village near Imphal. Three days later, Sharmila started fast demanding revocation of AFSPA, which allows security men to even kill a person on suspicion without the fear of facing a trial in court.