Iron Lady ends her 16-yr fast tomorrow

Bijay Sankar Bora in Guwahati

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For about 16 years since November 3, 2000, Irom Sanu Sharmila, the Iron Lady of Manipur, has been exhibiting tremendous grit for a young woman who has sacrificed her youth for a cause.

She remained on fast-unto-death demanding withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, that empowers security forces engaged in counter-insurgency operations to shoot at people on mere suspicion of being a threat to law and order.

It has been a saga of protest that has been registered in solitary confinement in a fortified hospital ward in Imphal as she has been booked for attempt to suicide. All along, she has been nose-fed by the authorities under tight security.

An epitome of protest, the Iron Lady has finally accepted that she, too, has limit to endurance. She is now set to end her fast on August 9. But she will continue her protest against AFSPA in a different way — probably by joining politics.

It is difficult to say where Sharmila has triumphed and lost in her endeavour to end sufferings of her fellows. There has been mixed reaction to her decision. As things stand today, it can be said that Manipur’s protest against AFSPA is set to acquire a new dimension manifestation.

SC keeps tab on NRC update

The Supreme Court is constantly monitoring the process of updating the National Register of Citizens, 1951, in Assam that is required to find a permanent solution to the detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants who came to the state after March 24, 1971.

The State Coordinator of the NRC updating process, Proteek Hajela, said the SC was being periodically apprised of the status of the NRC updating process that is an enormous exercise involving three-phase verification — field verification, office verification and family tree construction — of about 6.6 crore documents attached to total 68.23 lakh applications submitted by the residents of the state.

The official said: “The citizenship of a person has to be ascertained first for inclusion of his/her and descendants’ names in the updated NRC.”

‘ISI hand’ in Kokrajhar attack

On Friday, Assam witnessed another episode of dastardly killing of 14 innocent persons who gathered at a market near Kokrajhar, by a small group of gunmen belonging to proscribed terror group called National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit faction). While NDFB(S) is notorious for training guns on innocent and vulnerable civilians as they had exhibited in December 2014 by killing over 70 Adivasi villagers in the state, the latest attack exposed the desperation on part of the outfit to assert its presence given that it has been on the run since December 2014 because of sustained intensified operation by the Army and the Assam Police.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claims the NDFB(S) is left with less than 200 cadres and out of this majority was taking shelter in Myanmar. However, former DG of police in Tripura and Assam, GM Srivastava, credited to tame tribal militants in Tripura, claims that the design of the massacre was hatched recently at Chittagong in Bangladesh at the patronage of Pakistani ISI.

Bollywood break for singing sensation

Teen-age singing sensation from Assam Naheed Afreen has got the opportunity to sing for Bollywood star Sonakshi Sinha in her latest film Akira. Hailing from a small town called Bishwanath Chariali in North Assam, Nahid shot to fame after her performance on TV reality show Indian Idol Junior last year where she was a runner up.