The episode that prompted Ms. Sharmila to begin her fast took place on the afternoon of Nov. 2, 2000, in a village at the edge of Imphal called Malom. A mysterious explosion along the main road leading to the village sent a company of soldiers of the Assam Rifles flooding into the village. The soldiers killed 10 people, including teenagers and a 62-year-old grandmother. Seven of the dead were shot at close range while lined up at a bus stop; the other three were gunned down elsewhere in the village.

The soldiers claimed that they had been fired upon, but a judicial inquiry found no evidence to support their assertion.

“The firing by the Assam Rifles personnel have resulted to the death of 10 (ten) innocent persons,” said the inquiry report, which was completed last year, nearly a decade after the killings.

Among the dead were Chandramani Singh, a 17-year-old high school student who had won a national award for bravery for saving his younger brother from drowning in a fish pond when he was 4 years old. He had traveled to New Delhi to receive a clover-leaf-shaped medal from then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. His older brother, Robin, was also killed.

“The family was completely shattered,” said Manichandra Singh, the brother Chandramani had plucked from the fishing pond, now a 25-year-old doctor. “My two brothers who were living together with me suddenly killed in cold blood by those fellows.”

Two days after the massacre, Ms. Sharmila sat on a hand-woven rug beneath a metal roof along the main road and hung up a sign that read “Hunger Strike,” said Babloo Loitangbam, a human rights activist and adviser to Ms. Sharmila. Her goal was to get the central government to revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act so that the men who carried out the attack on Malom could be prosecuted.