Irom Sharmila warned against contesting elections, marrying ‘outsider’

Guwahati: Manipuri human rights activist Irom Sharmila, who has announced that she would end her 16-year-old fast against alleged atrocities by the security forces in the northeastern state this month, has been threatened by a local radical group.

While announcing her decision on ending the fast, Sharmila had stated that she would contest elections and also marry.

However, the lesser-known secessionist group Alliance for Socialist Unity, Kangleipak (ASUK) has warned the Manipuri activist against standing in elections as well as marrying an “outsider”.

In its threat, the ASUK said that “some former revolutionary leaders were assassinated” after they deviated from the cause and won elections, the Hindustan Times reported.

“All those who joined electoral politics did so knowing well that it was a dead-end,” ASUK chairman N Oken and vice-chairman Ksh Lab Meitei said in a statement on Wednesday, as per the newspaper.

The duo also cautioned Sharmila against marrying a “non-local”.

It may be noted that Sharmila is in a relationship with a Goan-British activist, Desmond Coutinho.

“Even though the man is an NRI, he is still an Indian in the eyes of the people of Kangleipak (core of Manipur),” the statement said.

The outfit said the Indian intelligence agencies could have planted the NRI to weaken Sharmila's fight against AFSPA and “colonial domination”.

As per the report, the ASUK is fighting for a sovereign Manipur.

Sharmila, 44, had announced on July 26 that she would end her hunger strike against AFSPA on August 9.

Sharmila, who has come to be known as the “Iron Lady of Manipur”, had launched her hunger strike in November, 2000 just days after some armed forces personnel allegedly killed 10 people at a bus stop in Malom in front of her eyes.

Several human rights activists and her family members have not reacted positively to her decision to end the fast.