Imphal, March 26: Manipur’s human rights crusader against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act Irom Sharmila underwent a minor surgery at a private hospital in Imphal yesterday.

Her condition is said to be stable.

The operation was conducted at Shija Hospitals and Research Institute, after which Sharmila was taken back to the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital’s security ward, which is an extension of Imphal’s Sajiwa Jail.

Kh. Palin, managing director of the private hospital, said a medium-sized lump, which had developed on Sharmila’s chin because of fat deposits, was removed using liposuction.

A group of security personnel, including woman officials, and a team of doctors from the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital accompanied her to the Shija Hospitals and Research Institute.

Several people gathered at the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital on hearing about Sharmila’s surgery and dispersed only after the hospital assured them that her condition was stable.

Sources said when the lump appeared on her chin, doctors at the government hospital advised Sharmila to undergo a surgery to get the lump removed.

She had to be shifted to the private hospital because of better healthcare facilities available there.

This is the first operation on the human rights crusader after she began her hungerstrike six years ago.

Sharmila launched her hungerstrike in November 2000 after Assam Rifles personnel shot dead 10 civilians at a bus stand near Imphal airport in retaliation to a militant ambush.

Police soon picked her up and a court sent her to jail on the charge of trying to commit suicide.

Sharmila shifted her protest to Delhi after she was released from custody in October last year and returned to Imphal earlier this month to continue the agitation here.

She was sent back to jail the day she resurfaced in Imphal.

She has been lodged in the security ward of the government hospital since then.