At dawn, Debashish was preparing to go fishing with his family. He had not yet shown the courage to share with his family, or any of the villagers, the secret understanding he had with the border guards. After witnessing the sordid business of the border guards, he no longer had the urge left in him to wake up in the middle of nights to prove his patriotism. So what if Debashish had forgotten his newfound buddies, they could not. Gautam did not have any idea that Debashis already knew about their activities. They came to the fishing village almost every week looking for him, only to find out that he had gone fishing with his brother and father. Finally, they told Ratna Devi about her son’s promise when they couldn’t get hold of her son. When Debashish had returned home with his brother and father, he narrated to his family the whole story after being asked in front of everyone. Everyone kept looking at each other with bewildered face. Debashish’s father went to Dinesh Mandal, the head of the fishing village, and conveyed to him what had happened. Dinesh was petrified by the deadly implication of this incident. He rebuked Debashish’s father with harsh words for his son’s reckless behavior. He told Joyram that Debashish had endangered the lives of the villagers. Any day a great disaster might strike the village because Gautam had set a trap for all of them. Now there was no other way other than asking for divine intervention. With a heavy heart, when Joyram was on his way to his hut, hundred yards away, on the other side of the canal, three military border guards were watching the fishing village. Joyram thought he saw some people smoking cigarettes by the side of the canal. Like a heavy stone, an ominous thought pressed down on Joyram’s heart.
Su was in a rush to pack her papers in her leather bag after finishing morning breakfast in her bedroom when she heard her mobile ringing. Her heart lit up with joy as she looked at the number which was being displayed. She received the call hoping to hear her husband’s voice. But an unfamiliar voice shattered her hope. The voice identified himself as Karim, Rafiq’s elder brother. Courteously Su exchanged greetings with him. At the time, just like a summer morning, the weather in Yangon was very hot and humid. Though the air conditioner was turned on, thin lines of sweat appeared on Su’s forehead. She wiped it off lightly with a tissue.
The shock threw Su into an emotional tantrum when Karim had informed her about Rafiq leaving the country. For a few seconds, she just kept quiet. She struggled to hold herself in one piece. In the end, she gave up and terminated the connection. Quietly she lay in her bed and cried helplessly. She consoled herself by saying this was a temporary set back. And that Rafiq would come back home to her when everything would return to normal. The absurdity of it made her shift her thoughts. Perhaps she was going to find a way to reunite with Rafiq. But before that could happen, she needed to visit Rafiq’s parents.
Hastily, she retrieved herself from the bed, and left home for her office. She was going to submit an application for a seven-day leave. She planned to mention that she needed to meet her father as fast as possible. Upon reaching her office, she finished all pending work before taking the application with her to the Director’s office. Su noticed a harsh expression on the director’s face after he finished reading her application. Usually the director was very friendly with Su. However, that morning, for some reason, Thak Sin seemed pretty rough. He thought applying for a seven day leave before even completing a month at her new job was sheer arrogance. He rebuked Su in a very harsh tone, and then asked her to return to her room. Suppressing the feeling of utter disappointment and humiliation, with an indifferent expression, quickly she came out of the director’s office room. In her room she felt as if hundreds of bees had been stinging all over her body. Never in her life had she experienced such humiliation. Her hands trembled uncontrollably. Just staying calm seemed like a challenge. A cup of tea helped to calm her down. She called her father, told him how restless she had become to see him. She didn’t hesitate to disclose to him the kind of humiliation she went through at her office when she had asked for a leave. She narrated to him the whole episode in the most tragic tone possible. About an hour later, Su’s director Thak-Sin entered her room with a smiling face. He explained to her that actually he didn’t reject her application. She didn’t use appropriate language in her application. Hence, he just tried to draw her attention to this aspect of her application. After clarifying the matter, Thak-Sin approved her application and came out of her room.
After getting her father’s approval, Su spent two whole days, observing with her own eyes the villages around Sittwe, . She said to Lee, she had to visit the region in order to collect some basic data for her project. The objective of the project was to portray a positive picture of the conditions of the minorities in Rakhain.
On the first day of her tour, Su appeared at Rafiq’s home. She had already collected Rafiq’s address at Aung Syke from Rafiq himself. To her, the Rohingya village in Aung Syke looked like other villages in Myanmar. When she stepped into the premises of Rahim’s residence, it was half past twelve in the noon. Hajera Begum was busy inside the kitchen. Her daughter in law Kulsum was washing clothes at the tube-well before taking a bath. Karim didn’t return home from the field yet. He was collecting tomatoes from the field. Rahim Mollah had been waiting for Kulsum to leave the tube-well. He would go for a bath and get ready for salaat.
Noticing an unfamiliar face in a snow-white dress and red skirt, Rahim Mollah thought, perhaps the incredibly beautiful lady had lost her way, and ended up in their yard. Without saying anything, he expected the young girl to ask him for directions. In the dry weather of January, she was like a rose in the middle of a desert. At first, she hesitated for a few moments. Shrugging off her hesitation, she approached Rahim, and very softly asked, “Are you Rafiq’s father?”
Suddenly it occurred to Rahim that this young lady might be his younger son’s newly wedded bride. The smile disappeared from his face. A bit sternly, he replied, “Yes.”
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“I’m Rafiq’s wife, Su. Please accept my apology for coming here without prior notice.”
By this time, Rahim’s elder son, Karim, his wife Kulsum and Hajera Begum were all behind Rahim, looking at Su with unblinking eyes. Karim slightly touched his father’s shoulders and asked his family members to get inside their hut. Then he introduced himself to Su. He said, he was the one who had talked to her on the phone. He also said, two weeks earlier. Rafiq left for Bangladesh. Once his papers were ready, from there he would fly to Saudi Arabia,.
Su looked at the home for a few moments, thinking about her loved one’s childhood. She tried to imagine a kid running around the yard. No, she wouldn’t blame Rafiq’s family for her distress. They were simply the victims of the tidal wave of hatred which had been aroused against the Muslim’s all across the globe. With its burning lava, the way an erupting volcano turned everything around it into ashes, this raging hatred was about to burn down everything in the world. There came a time when her vision became blurry. For a while, she stood with her eyes closed. Then she blurted out to Karim, “I’m very tired. If you don’t mind, for a while I would like to take rest inside your home.”
Karim wanted to ask Su to leave but the plight in her eyes wouldn’t let him. Su was given a wooden chair inside the hut. She sat down and looked around with bewildered eyes, while Rafiq’s family stood before her, trying to figure out what to do. In the meantime, the uneasy atmosphere became somewhat bearable when Hajera Begum served two pieces of syrup rolls and a glass of water on a tray. She sensed, they were not sure whether she would touch the sweets. Swallowing the sweets one at a time, very quickly she was done with the snacks, giving it the final touch with a glass of water. Before departing, as a gesture of gratitude, she gave everyone a warm smile and walked out of their humble residence. She wanted to discuss a lot of things with his family. When the time came, she was at a loss for words. She hid her anguish, and walked out like a destitute.
In Sittwe, Lee has been waiting in the living-room of his official residence for his adjutant to come. Every day Captain Ne Un accompanies Lee to his office after morning breakfast. On their way, the young officer will brief his commander about the day’s activities. The dark clouds of disappointment and disgust which engulfed Lee's heart, almost all of it has disappeared after Su’s arrival. He keeps thinking of a plan to recover from the disastrous field exercise which took place at Awagan. A very tiny but extremely powerful group within Tatmadaw is out to oppose Lee. He is quite alarmed by this development. He has began thinking of a way to foil this plot by successfully executing the drive against the Rohingyas as quickly as possible. As the first step, through his adjutant, today Lee is going to give explicit orders to Gautam to do whatever is necessary. Subsequently, the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhain can be portrayed as terrorists. Gautam is to submit directly to him a confidential report within forty-eight hours after the mission has been completed. Then the official investigation will start. The report of the investigation will then be based on Gautam’s statement. The report will shed light on the terror suspects and their method. Once in his office, within ten minutes, he finished the formalities regarding the secret mission, before focusing on his core responsibilities.
Once the secret mission is successfully executed, the drive against the Rohingyas will openly commence. For this, necessary man power and supplies have already been sent from the army headquarters. The responsibility for this mission has been handed over to the thirty third and ninety-nine light infantry divisions. The thirty-third division is under the command of Lee while Brigadier Ban-La is in command of the ninety-nine light infantry division. Both thirty third and ninety-nine have experience fighting against the Ka Chin rebels. These two forces create an atmosphere of terror, wherever they are stationed because of the ruthlessness and barbarity they showed against the Kachin rebels. The army headquarters expects, Lee and Ban La will successfully accomplish their mission against the Rohingyas by using this atmosphere of sheer terror.
Debashish fell in a slumber after spending the entire day exerting strenuous physical labor. Around dawn when the sleep became light, the sound of the people outside his hut woke him up. Jumping out of his bed, quietly he peeped through a crack and what he saw almost froze his heart. A cold spell of terror paralyzed his entire body. He lost his ability to think. In front of every hut in the fishing village, there were masked armed men wearing black dresses. A number of blind folded residents of the fishing village lay on the ground with their faces down, their hands tied behind their backs. After a few minutes, they would enter their hut. He became hysterical when he heard one of the masked men call out for Gautam. If he woke his family members, they would certainly start screaming. Hence, he refrained from doing so. At any moment, the soldiers would be here. If he took the time to wake his family, they would all die. It was the hardest decision of his life. In the end, he sneaked out of the shack. Out in the darkness of the night, he employed all his energy, in order to get away as far as possible and as fast as possible. The nights never appeared so dark. He kept running till the black sky started to become pale. He had to run as long as he could for he had been running the way a deer runs away from a charging tiger. He must live in any manner he could. It was the only thought circling on his mind. He was not in a situation to see what time it was. His mobile lay in his pocket, he had totally forgotten that it was there. When he had used up all his energy, he fell down in a paddy field, subsequently losing his senses.
The sun was high up in the morning sky when Debashish regained his senses. He cleaned himself with the water of the rice field. Sitting on the raised isle of the paddy field, he began thinking of what he should do next. Going to the police for security was meaningless for they were the ones who had attacked them like hyenas. Debashish thought whether he should return to the fishing village. If he entered other villages, the villagers would most certainly hand him over to the security forces. Starving and spending day and night in the jungles and bushes was not possible. It was actually an impossible situation. After regaining his strength and courage, he started heading for his fishing village. Half a mile from his village, he stopped, gazing at his village for a while. He could not see any human presence. Stealthily, he entered the village. The moment he stepped in, a hideous scene greeted him. In an open space at the center of the village, the dead bodies of around a hundred villagers lay in a row on the ground. The corpses were already attracting flies. He ran towards the river bank and threw up whatever he had eaten the previous night. He was convinced, he could no longer live in this country. He washed his face, while mentally getting ready to swim across the river. He was going to flee to Bangladesh.