Bengaluru: Civil rights activist and Manipur’s iron lady, Irom Sharmila gave birth to twin baby girls at a private hospital in Bengaluru on Sunday.

According to a media report, Irom (46) gave birth through C-section at Cloudnine Group of Hospitals and the babies and the mother were said to be in good health.

One of the babies was born at 9.21 am with the birth weight of 2.16 kg and the other was born at 9.22 am with a birth weight of 2.14 kg. They have been named Nix Shakhi and Autumn Tara by their parents.

Sharmila held a 16-year-long hunger strike demanding withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur, and ended the protest in 2016. She married Desmond Anthony Bellarnine Coutinho in 2017 at Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu. She had even contested the assembly election in 2017 against chief minister Ibobi Singh and had lost it.