1/7 Indian rights activist Irom Sharmila talks to media after appearing before a District and Sessions Judge at Imphal West court in Imphal on 9 August 2016. An Indian rights activist who has waged what is thought to be the world's longest hunger strike ended her 16-year fast on 9 August after vowing to continue her struggle by standing for election in her home state. Irom Sharmila dubbed the "Iron Lady of Manipur" for her unwavering protest against alleged rights abuses by security forces in the insurgency-hit northeast Indian state was released on bail after she promised a court she would end her fast.

AFP Photo/Biju Boro

2/7 Indian rights activist Irom Sharmila, who has been on hunger strike for 16 years reacts while surrounded by media following her release from a hospital jail in Imphal, India's northeastern Manipur state, on 20 August 2014. An Indian woman who has staged a 16-year hunger strike against rights abuses in the country's northeast broke down in tears on Wednesday as she was finally released from a hospital jail.

AFP Photo/STRDEL

3/7 Indian rights activist Irom Sharmila, who has been on hunger strike for 16 years reacts while surrounded by media following her release from a hospital jail in Imphal, India's northeastern Manipur state, on 20 August 2014. An Indian woman who has staged a 16-year hunger strike against rights abuses in the country's northeast broke down in tears as she was finally released from a hospital jail.

AFP Photo/STRDEL

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4/7 Indian rights activist Irom Sharmila (C), who has been on hunger strike for 16 years is greeted by her supporters following her release from a hospital jail in Imphal, India's northeastern Manipur state, on 20 August 2014. An Indian woman who has staged a 16-year hunger strike against rights abuses in the country's northeast broke down in tears as she was finally released from a hospital jail.

AFP Photo/STRDEL

5/7 Activist Irom Sharmila Chanu is seen outside Manipur House after appearing at Patiala court for attempting suicide on 4 March 2013, in New Delhi, India. Sharmila is a civil rights activist from the North-eastern state of Manipur who has been on hunger strike since 2000 demanding repeal Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958.

M Zhazo/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

6/7 A policewoman escorts civil rights activist, Irom Sharmila Chanu (R) also known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur" or "Mengoubi" (meaning "the fair one") to an ambulance as she leaves The Magistrate's Court in Imphal on 22 February 2012. For more than 11 years, Sharmila has refused food and water to back her demand for the withdrawal of the special powers wielded by, and according to critics widely abused by, the security forces.

AFP Photo/Manjunath Kiran

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7/7 Nobel Peace Prize 2005 nominee, Irom Chanu Sharmila (C) is attended to by her supporters at a hunger strike protest in New Delhi, 6 October 2006. Sharmila arrived in New Delhi to continue her six-year hunger strike demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and alleged lawlessness, rape, murder, army excess, arbitrary detention, torture and repression in Manipur, a north-eastern state of India.

AFP Photo/Raveendran

Irom Sharmila: Iron Lady of Manipur ends her 16-year-long hunger strike

Sehar Qazi @CatchNews | Updated on: 9 August 2016, 19:11 IST

Indian activist Irom Sharmila Chanu ends her 16-year-long hunger strike on Tuesday.

She has been protesting against the Armed Force Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which gives soldiers power to arrest without warrants and even shoot to kill in certain situations.

On 2 November 2000 in Malom Massacre when 10 people, including teenage students, were gunned down by Assam Rifles personnel, Irom began a hunger strike against army atrocities.

Over time, she became the face of the anti-AFSPA movement in Manipur and in other parts of the country.

She was arrested by the Manipur government in 2000 under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code which prohibits an attempt to commit suicide.

Iron Sharmila is known as the Iron lady of Manipur. She has received several prizes including the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights in 2007, a lifetime achievement award from the Asian Human Rights Commission and the Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize both in 2010.

She has spent most of the last 16 years in judicial custody in a hospital in Imphal, where she has been force-fed through a tube in her nose.

Her way of protest has won her worldwide recognition, with Amnesty International describing her as "a prisoner of conscience".

Here\'s a look at her journey.