TODAY -
Irom Sharmila must reach out to people: GK Pillai
Economic Times | 30 Aug, 2011, 10.47AM IST, IANS
Irom Sharmila, fasting for the last 11 years for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), must "reach out to people across the country" like anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare to make her cause known, says former union home secretary G.K. Pillai.
AFSPA enables security forces to shoot at sight and arrest anybody without a warrant if an area is declared disturbed. Sharmila is currently in an isolated room of Manipur's Jawarharlal Nehru Hospital.
"It is a question of how you reach out to people. AFSPA is applicable only in Jammu and Kashmir and in the northeastern states. Corruption is pricking people everywhere and that's why Anna Hazare had a high moral ground," Pillai told IANS Monday.
Sharmila is frequently set free by local courts but once outside, she resumes her hunger strike and is rearrested.
AFSPA was passed in 1990 to grant special powers and immunity from prosecution to security forces to deal with raging insurgencies in northeastern states and in Jammu and Kashmir.
The act is a target for local human rights groups and international campaigners such as Amnesty International, which say the law has been an excuse for extrajudicial killings.
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* This Post is uploaded on August 30, 2011.
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