23.8.14

Irom Sharmila arrested again

A screaming and struggling Irom Sharmila was dragged on Friday morning by seven to eight policewomen from her makeshift tin shack outside the Government Hospital in Imphal to a police vehicle parked 50 mts away, even as hundreds of people, including the media, looked on. Barely 48 hours earlier, the nation had applauded a local court order releasing Sharmila ­ who's been on a fast for the past 14 years protesting AFSPA ­ saying her method of protest didn’t amount to attempt to commit suicide.
Sharmila, 42, began her fast in 2000 against AFSPA (the Armed Forces Special Powers Act), which gives the army sweeping powers to arrest people without warrants and even shoot to kill in certain situations.She had launched the hunger strike after 10 civilians were killed, allegedly by the para-military officers. Sharmila was arrested soon after and held in judicial custody in a hospital where she was force-fed through a pipe in her nose.
Around 9 am Friday, teams of cops, including female officers and constables, forcibly carried Sharmila to the police station saying they were “taking her for a medical check up”. Around an hour later, Manipur Additional Director General Santosh Macherla announced, “Irom Sharmila has been rearrested on charges of attempt to commit suicide.”

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