Around 500 volunteers of the Sharmila Kanba Lup (SAKAL) today staged a mass rally at Porompat area of Imphal East demanding immediate action of the government to save Sharmila. The representatives of the SAKAL also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister of Manipur condemning the arbitrary arrest of Irom Chanu Sharmila by Manipur Police, 40 hours after the a court released her from the judicial custody. The session court of Imphal East in an order had released Irom Chanu Sharmila ruling out the charges leveled against her under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code for over 13 years on August 19. The state prison authority released her from custody at around 5 pm on the following day but rearrested her on the same charge at around 10.30 am of August 22 as she continued her protest for repeal of the draconian act Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958). The volunteers of the SAKAL have been condemning the attitude of the police personnel who had come to arrest her.Today’s rally started from the office premises of Sharmila Kanba Lup (SAKAL) and tried to proceed towards Checkon to reach Chief Minister’s Bungalow carrying banner denouncing the arbitrary arrest of Irom Chanu Sharmila as well as demanding repeal of the draconian AFSPA. The large numbers of people mostly constituted with women were intervened by a team of Imphal East Police near Ananda Singh Higher Secondary School in Soibam Leikai, Imphal East. The women activists were stopped at the site and police took 6 of the representatives to submit memorandum to the Chief Minister of Manipur./The memorandum demands immediate repeal of AFSPA and immediate released of Irom Chanu Sharmila from illegal custody. It also urges the government authority to conduct a judicial investigation to the circumstances of her arrest and punishment of the Imphal East police personnel who had allegedly manhandled the Iron lady on August 22.
