IMPHAL, May 8 � Manipur�s human rights activist Irom Chanu Sharmila, who has been on an indefinite hunger strike for the last 11 years for the repeal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) 1958, has been featured
in Ripley�s Believe It or Not graffiti.
Ripley�s Believe It or Not is a franchise, which deals in bizarre events and strange, unusual items. The well-known network (www.ripleys.com/weird/videos-and-oddities/cartoon-04132012/) carried Sharmila�s picture in a comic form with a headline which read �Irom Sharmila Chanu, an Indian political activist known as the �iron lady of Manipur� has been on a continuous hunger strike since November 2, 2000 to protest Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 which date backs more than 50 years�.
Speaking to The Assam Tribune, Kshetrimayum Onil who works in a Manipur-based human rights body, Human Rights Alert, said
Ripley�s recognition would certainly strengthen the campaign as their edition reaches out to a minimum of one million people in a month. He also said that it would help in bringing up the ongoing struggle to a world platform.
Meanwhile, Sharmila was produced before a court in Imphal and remanded in the judicial custody this afternoon. She has been regularly freed and re-arrested every year since she was arrested 11 years back on charges of �attempts to commit suicide�. She was last re-arrested on March 12 this year.
