Activism ...........

On November 1, 2000, in Malom, a town in the Imphal Valley of Manipur, ten people waiting for their buses at a bus station were allegedly gunned down by the Assam Rifles,
one of the Indian Paramilitary forces operating in the state. Insurgents had attempted to bomb the paramilitary convoy, and the Assam Rifles claimed that the civilians died in cross-firing.
 Eyewitness accounts of the local people however contradicted this claim. The incident, which later came to be known as the Malom Massacre. The next day's local newspapers published brutal pictures
of the dead bodies, including one of a 62-year old woman, Leisangbam Ibetomi, and 18-year old Sinam Chandramani, a 1988 National Child Bravery Award winner.
The lack of government response convinced Irom Sharmila Chanu, then 28, to act. On the evening of November 4, after taking blessings from her mother, she launched her hunger strike against
the wider problems of the AFSPA.In due course, she extended the scope of her demand to all regions of India's north east where AFSPA's been imposed.
On 6 November 2000, three days after she launched the strike, she was arrested by the police and charged with an "attempt to commit suicide", which is
unlawful under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, and was later transferred to judicial custody. With her determination not to take food nor water,
her health deteriorated tremendously; the police then forcibly had to use nasogastric intubation in order to keep her alive while under arrest.
Since then Irom Sharmila has been under a ritual of release and arrest every year since under IPC section 309, a person who "attempt to commit suicide" is
punishable "with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year".