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.