Activist Irom Sharmila’s 16-year hunger strike ends

Human rights activist Irom Sharmila has ended her hunger strike, the world’s longest, which protested alleged army atrocities in northeast India. She wants to contest local elections.

Known as the Iron Lady of Manipur, Mr Sharmila has spent most of the last 16 years under judicial custody in a hospital and has been force-fed through a tube inserted into her nose.

Ms Sharmila had not eaten voluntarily since November 5, 2000, when she began fasting to protest an Indian law that suspends human rights protections in conflict areas, including her northeastern state of Manipur, which has long been plagued by uprisings by ethnic separatist militants and violent government crackdowns.