Sharmila (42) has been on hunger strike demanding repeal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958 from Manipur after the killing of 10 civilians by Assam Rifles personnel in an alleged encounter with insurgents at Malom area near Imphal airport on November 2, 2000.
Irom Shakhi said she was very proud of her daughter, but at the same time she felt pity and unhappy thinking about the condition of her daughter who has been in judicial custody and at government-run J N I Medical Sciences and Hospital here since November 4,2000 after her arrest and is being fed through nose. Sharmila has been released and re-arrested from time to time since then.
"Like other people she (Sharmila) cannot eat good food or wear good clothes," said Shakhi who has not seen her daughter for more than 10-years except once or twice in the hospital in her early stage of hunger strike.
Shakhi said the family have also stopped celebrating most of the festivals and especially Ningol Chakouba, a grand feast festival in Manipur during which girls and women are invited to parental house for a special feast by their father and brother.
She said she has four daughters and Sharmila is the youngest of them. More