Putting an end to the world's longest hunger strike, Manipur's 'Iron Lady' Irom Chanu Sharmila completed her 16 year long protest. "I will never forget this moment," she said as she broke her fast with honey.
Addressing the media, she said, "I want to join politics as I've been called the Iron Lady of Manipur and I want to live up to that name. I want to be the chief minister of Manipur and I want my people to believe in me." She said she would stay at an ashram and would not require any security. Sharmila's protest was prompted after an Assam rifles battalion allegedly killed 10 civilians in a village near Imphal. She began her fast demanding a revocation of the AFSPA, which allows security men to kill any person based on a mere suspicion.
She was on a hunger strike for 5757 days, and was being force-fed through a nasal tube at her prison-turned-hospital. Sharmila was released from court this week.
