NEW DELHI: An Indian activist who has been on hunger strike for over 13 years said on Wednesday she was pinning her hopes of finally leading a normal life on new Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Irom Sharmila, 42, who is force-fed by a drip through her nose, said she wanted to meet Modi in hopes of ending the military’s alleged human rights abuses in her northeastern home state of Manipur.

Escorted by more than a dozen police officers, Sharmila appeared in a court in New Delhi in connection with long-running charges against her of attempting to commit suicide, a crime in India.

Sharmila told a judge that she wanted a “settled life as others do” but would not break her fast until a controversial law that covers large parts of restive northeastern India and Kashmir was repealed.—AFP

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2014