Imphal:
Irom Sharmila one of the world's longest political prisoners was released from detention on Monday morning in Imphal, the capital of Manipur in India's North East. Sharmila, 39, was detained in the jail ward of Imphal's Jawharalal Nehru Hospital.
Eleven years have passed in solitary confinement but Irom Sharmila Chanu a poet, writer and activist refuses to give up.
She had in the year 2000 pledged a fast-unto-death against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 in Manipur an act associated with human rights violations often referred to as a terrible piece of legislation.
She was arrested and since then kept in custody force fed with a tube and released every year for a day or two. Under Section 309 IPC under which she is arrested, a year is the maximum punishment provided by the law but the government has been rearresting her each year on the charges of her demand to 'wipe out the Armed Forces Special Powers Act' from the state of Manipur and staging 'protest at the road side' by 'fasting unto death'.
The Armed Forces Special Power Act or ASFSPA has been the one issues causing sustained civil unrest in the state for years. Sharmila's protest was spurred by the infamous Malom massacre in which 11 innocent people were shot dead by personnel of Assam Rifles. They were waiting at the bus shed in Malom on the outskirts of Imphal. The families of the victims are still awaiting justice.
The act has become a symbol of hatred but the state government has been relentless in its effort to retain the Disturbed Areas Act which must be notified for the AFSPA to be operational. The Central government has ,however, indicated that the Act must be diluted and made more humane but the Indian Army has been vehemently opposing any changes to its clauses. The AFSPA has a dangerous clause which allows killing someone on suspicion and this immunity has allegedly been the instrument of several human right violations in states of North East India and Jammu & Kashmir.
Sharmila will most certainly be re-arrested in a day or two. As she was being produced at the court before her release she reiterated that her struggle shall continue. She said she is stronger and even more resolute. And though her solitary struggle is celebrated every year by tributes, her cause increasingly seems to be fading in public discourse.