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Irom Sharmila to break fast on August 9; will contest election in Manipur

She had begun her fast in November 2000.

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'Mengoubi' Irom Chanu Sharmila, on Tuesday, announced that she will be breaking her 16-year-old fast against the imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Speaking to reporters at the Imphal High Court, Irom announced that she will give up her fast on August 9, and will contest in the upcoming Manipur elections. 

Irom decided to not eat a morsel of food further after a contingent of the Assam Rifles gunned down 10 civilians in a bus stop at Malom in 2000. Her demand was that AFSPA, a draconian rule that allows for the Indian army to have punitive powers, be taken out of Manipur. 

Three days after she started her fast, in November 2000, Irom was first arrested under the charge of attempt to commute suicide under the IPC. She has been arrested dozens of times since. 

The Patiala House Court in Delhi had in March acquitted her in the 2006 case of attempt to suicide when she was undertaking a fast until death at the Jantar Mantar. In March, 42-year-old Sharmila had told the court that she had expressed her desire to meet the Prime Minister a long time ago, but he has not met her so far.

Lately, Irom has let her displeasure known about how the people of Manipur were making her an unlikely icon and blaming her for a lot of political happenings. Her engagement with fiancé Desmond Coutinho, she told dna, too was under scrutiny. 

Most of Irom's friends were taken by surprise. "None of us had any idea, yet we have been asking her to break her fast for years now," said Delhi-based Ravi Nitesh. "We are overjoyed." 

The Supreme Court in July this year, looking at 1528 cases of alleged fake encounters by the army in Manipur, directed them to be probed further. 

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