The Amnesty International has demanded the Indian authorities to immediately release Irom Sharmila Chanu, the Manipur -based human rights activist, who has been on an indefinite fast since 2000.
A statement issued by the Amnesty International said this and urged the Government of India to drop all charges against her.
Irom Sharmila has been on an indefinite fast since November 2000, after the Assam Rifles killed 10 Manipuris at Malom in Imphal in November 2000. She had been protesting against the imposition of the AFSPA in the State since then. She was arrested shortly after she began her hunger strike and charged with attempting to commit suicide — a criminal offence under Indian law.
Chanu was released on March 12 this year by the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court of Imphal East only to be re-arrested on March 14 and remanded again to judicial custody till March 26. On March 4, a Delhi court had also charged Irom Sharmila with attempting to commit suicide in October 2006, when she staged a protest in Delhi for two days.
The International human rights panel pointed out that Irom Sharmila has never been brought to trial, but as her alleged offence is punishable by a term of one year only, she has been regularly released upon the completion of such period in judicial custody, only to be re-arrested shortly thereafter as she continues her fast. She is currently held at the security ward of the Jawaharlal Nehru hospital in Imphal, the capital of Manipur, where she is force-fed a diet of liquids through her nose.