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Irom Chanu Sharmila, An Indian civil rights activist, Tuesday decided to end her 16-year-long hunger strike against a controversial law in the country, officials said.
Sharmila said she would end her protest next month and would contest local elections as an independent candidate in her home state of Manipur in India's northeast.
"I will end my fast on August 9 and contest the elections as an Independent," Sharmila told reporters after coming out of a local court in Imphal city. "I will join politics and my fight will continue."
The 44-year-old activist began her hunger strike in 2000 after the killing of 10 people in Manipur allegedly by the paramilitary Assam Rifles.
Since then, she has been demanding revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from her state. AFSPA gives Indian armed forces extraordinary powers to arrest without warrants and even shoot a person on mere suspicion.
For her prolonged campaign, so far Indian government has responded by arresting her under charges of attempting to suicide and at times subjected her to force feeding.
She was confined to a room at a government hospital in Imphal and force-fed through a nasal tube for 14 years.
However, in 2014, she pulled off the tube after being released on orders from a local court, which stated there was no evidence that she was trying to commit suicide by refusing food, the main criminal charge against Sharmila.
Apart from Sharmila's home state Manipur, AFSPA is in force in several northeastern sates of India besides Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Assembly elections in Manipur are scheduled early next year and according to India's state-run broadcaster many political leaders in past have tried to persuade her to join politics, an offer she had until now refused.
Junior minister with India's home ministry Kiren Rijiju has welcomed Sharmila's decision to end her fast and join the electoral process.
"Her announcement to fight election and participate in political process is a good move," Rijiju told media.
Media reports also said Sharmila informed the court that she wants to marry.
Known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur", Sharmila had won worldwide recognition for her persistence in demanding scrapping of AFSPA.
（APD）
