Irom Sharmila on hunger strike for 16 years ends protest

Irom Sharmila who has been force fed for 16 years during a hunger strike has ended her protest so she can run for office.

Irom Sharmila began demonstration against alleged army atrocities and has spent most of the last 16 years under judicial custody in a hospital.

Known as the Iron Lady of Manipur, she has been forced-fed through a tube inserted into her nose by authorities.

Iram Sharmila(44)began her hunger strike after 10 civilians were killed in her home state of Manipur in 2000 by soldiers who enjoy wide powers to search, enter property and shoot on sight under a colonial era law that is still in existence in parts of India.

Her decision to end her protest against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) comes at a time when the federal government has asked its forces to exercise restraint in responding to protests in disputed Kashmir, a northern state where the army has shoot-to-kill powers to fight militants.

At least 46 people have been killed and more than 5,000 wounded, including security forces, since protests erupted after the killing of a commander of Kashmiri separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen on July 8 in Kashmir.

Despite calls from judicial authorities and human rights groups, the federal government has kept in force the anti-terror law in parts of northeast India and mainly-Muslim Kashmir to contain insurgencies.

Sharmila's protest has won her worldwide recognition, with Amnesty International describing her as a prisoner of conscience.

Manipuri rights activist Irom Sharmila was just 28 years when she vowed not to eat, drink, comb her hair or look in a mirror till the govt repealed the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). It's been 16 years since, and now she's decided to change tack and contest elections instead