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Now, Sharmila to fight for Kashmiris


Date:- 17 May 2018


New Delhi: After quitting 16 years of her activism against Armed Forces Special Po­wers Act (AFSPA) in northe­ast, Irom Sharmila is making a comeback; this time in Kashmir The world's long­est hunger striker and civil rights activist who went without food and water for over 500 we­eks has decided to go to Kashmir and work for Kashmiri women.

Sharmila, who is traveling with her husband Desmond Coutinho to understand challenges of common citizens across India, told the TOI on phone from Pune, that she was dee­ply moved by the images of violence and strife in Kash­mir, that appear in media. "There is a wrong projection that everyone in Kashmir is a Pakistani. I feel these are our own people and I must do something for them," she said after meeting a group of Kashmiri students at Pu­ne based Sarhad school which has adopted 105 Kash­miri children for education since 2004.

"I am motivated by the cau­se of Kashmiri women be­cause in any protracted con­flict, women are the worst sufferers. I have seen injustices and at­rocities committed against women in Manipur and I feel a cer­tain similarity betwe­en Manipur and Kash­mir," she said.

A delegation of Kashmiris had met Sharmila in Manipur a few years ago when she was still on a hunger strike against AFSPA. Human rights activists in northeast and J&K find a common cau­se due to the fact that the Act remains implemented in both the regions, which are otherwise disparate.

Courtesy: Times Of India, 17, May, 2018.