Irom Sharmila: What's next for world's longest hunger striker?

"Don't make me a goddess. I am an ordinary woman with ordinary desires," Irom Sharmila, seen as the world's longest hunger striker, once told an associate.

"I want to eat good food, get married, want to have children. Please don't put me on a pedestal. I am just an ordinary person engaged in an extraordinary struggle."

Her struggle has been against India's notorious Armed Forces Special Powers Act, a draconian law which gives the security forces sweeping powers to arrest people without warrants and even shoot to kill in certain situations.

Amnesty International says the law "provides impunity for perpetrators of grave human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, rape, torture and excessive use of force" in Manipur, Ms Sharmila's troubled homeland. Full story...

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