Indian activist Irom Sharmila to end 16-year-long hunger strike

Human rights activist Irom Chanu Sharmila will end her 16-year-long hunger strike, one of the longest in world, against a Indian controversial law that gives special powers to the Indian armed forces in areas affected by insurgency. She now plans to contest the 2017 elections in her state Manipur in north-east India as an independent candidate.

Called the Iron Lady of Manipur, the 44-year-old has been on a fast since 2000 to protest the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), a law gives Indian soldiers powers and legal immunity to shoot to kill, conduct raids and arrest people without warrants.

The activist and poet started the hunger strike after 10 civilians were killed by soldiers in Manipur in 2000, and famously vowed not to meet her mother, until her demand for the repeal of AFSPA was met. The law continues to be applied in several states, including Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir.

"I will break my fast as the government has failed to give any positive response. I will fight elections to resolve the issues," Sharmila said. She added that "public apathy" forced her to change her strategy and that she did not believe that her fast would lead to AFSPA's repeal."That is why I will join politics and my fight will continue," she told reporters.

The members of Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign observed a candle light vigil in solidarity in New Delhi in 2013. Credit: Sushil Kumar/Hindustan Times/Getty Images

Sharmila will finally conclude her hunger strike on August 9. In the last decade-and-half, she was mostly fed through a nasal tube and lived under house arrest at a government hospital in Manipur's state capital Imphal. She has been charged under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code for attempting suicide. As the maximum punishment under this law is one year, she has been periodically arrested, released and then arrested again. Her quiet protest has drawn global attention, and Sharmila has been given numerous international human rights awards. In 2013, Amnesty International declared her a Prisoner of Conscience.

“It was a shock. But I can understand why this is happening," Baloo Loitongbam, a Manipuri human rights activist who started the Save Sharmila campaign, said. "If after 16 long years, her fasting has had little impact on the government and there has been no progress in the move to repeal AFSPA, then what is the guarantee it will happen if she fasts for another 16?”