IMPHAL: After being on fast for the last 16 years demanding repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, Irom Chanu Sharmila, better known as Manipur’s ‘Iron Lady’, is ending her fast on Tuesday.A frail looking Irom Sharmila was taken to a local court earlier this morning from Imphal hospital where she had been lodged as a prisoner for 16 years.

Sharmila reached the court in an ambulance and amid tight security. After reaching there, Sharmila told court about her decision to end fast and urged it to release her. The court agreed to set her free and asked her to submit a bond.Sources from Manipur said that Sharmila had refused to sign the bond for release.

The 44-year-old iconic rights activist, who was forcibly fed through a nasal tube since 2000 to keep her alive at a prison-turned-hospital, will formally end her fast after the conclusion of legal proceedings at the court in Imphal.

“She was produced before a judicial magistrate today after which she will be released from judicial custody in view of her decision to end her fast,” her brother Irom Singhajit said. A large number of her supporters and women activists under the forum of Sharmila Kunba Lup will be meeting her as she starts her new journey, however, Sharmila’s 84-year-old mother Shakhi Devi is not likely to meet her.

“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 She is waiting for the moment of her victory which will come only when AFSPA is repealed,” Singhajit, who will be present at the courtroom today, said. The family and her supporters, who have not been able to meet her since July 26 when she announced her decision to end her fast and enter politics to ensure that AFSPA is repealed through political means, have no idea where she is going to stay from now on.

Local activist Kshetrimayum Onil, who has been associated with 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,” he said.Her brother also said he is 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.”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, told News Aency pti.

Sharmila’s struggle has been the nucleus of all protests against AFSPA in Manipur and the neighbouring north-eastern states.On November 2, 2000, an Assam Rifles battalion had allegedly killed 10 civilians in a village near Imphal. Three days later, Sharmila embarked on her 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.

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