Overview

• The Shirui Lily Festival, a cultural event celebrating Manipur's endemic Shirui lily, resumed on May 20 after a two-year hiatus due to ethnic violence.
• Members of the Meitei radical group Arambai Tenggol’s Cobra Team – Unit 58 hoisted a seven-colored Meitei flag on Shirui Peak, a site sacred to the Tangkhul Naga community.
• The Tangkhul Katamnao Saklong and Tangkhul Naga Long condemned the act as a deliberate political provocation and an insult to Tangkhul identity and territorial sanctity.
• The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) demanded an unqualified apology within 48 hours, calling the incident an unwarranted intrusion into Naga territory.
• The festival continues under heightened security, with military and police patrols, as tensions rise over the politicization of the event.