At the outskirts of Maung Dao, the residents of the Hindu fishing village were also troubled by the ominous events unfolding all around them. One day, when they had been busy preparing their tools for fishing in the Lambro River, a few soldiers of Tatmadaw and the border guards appeared. They said they had come for information. At first, they did not tell the residents what kind of information they sought. In three groups, they made sure they reached every house for questioning. Later the subject matter of the interview was revealed. They wanted to learn how their relationship with the Rohingyas of Maung Dao was, if they faced any obstacles from the Rohingyas in observing their religious practice, what their motives or intentions were. The leader of the fishing village was an elderly man. Dinesh started having doubts about this. The more the soldiers kept yelling out about the various benefits the Maung Dao residents would enjoy from the government, the greater their suspicion and anxiety were. One of the members of the patrol team approached Dinesh saying, “Our new commander in Sittwe has sent you blood red greetings. Our commander has vowed to work relentlessly in order to ensure your prosperity, safety and peace.”
Dinesh Mondol replied in a soft tone, “Blood red greeting, what kind of greeting is this?”
The commander of the patrol team grinned, and said, “Our commander is a fearless soldier of communism. Hence, to convey blood red greetings to the Barmese nation is the Motto of his life.”
“Good thing. Now please clearly state your intentions as to how we can help your new commander. Other than that, we would also love to know the name of your new leader.”
The leader of the patrol team brought out a cigarette from his chest pocket. Quite casually, he lit a cigarette and exhaled two puffs. Then he closed his eyes while inhaling the nicotine. The following moment, he presented a stern look at the village chief. He said, “In this war on terror, our new commander, Colonel Lee Bu Sun will provide leadership in this region. Your role will be that of an associate. It is the moral obligation of every citizen to observe the motives and movements of the Rohingyas and report it to the authority.”
All residents of the fishing village had surrounded the leader of the patrol team and Dinesh during their conversation. They stared at Dinesh when the commander of the patrol team was done with his speech. They wanted to tell Dinesh something. Dinesh was over sixty. He assumed what they wanted to say. In line with the expection of his people, he said, “Till now, we knew the Kachins in the North were the terrorists. When did the Rohingyas get into to the list?”
“The Rohingyas are outsiders. They have connections with the terrorists. They have formed several terrorist organizations and obviously you must have heard the names of one or two. ARSA is just one of those terror outfits.”
“The activities of ARSA are limited to the Northern regions of Arakan. Instead of searching there, why are you trying to pit us against the Rohingyas over here? What will happen to the communal harmony if the Rohingyas come to know about it? We won’t give them shelter or let them near us. We can promise you this. It is not possible for us to do more than this.”
One of the team members seemed like he was not satisfied with the feedback from the residents. He was obviously agitated by the indifferent attitude of the village chief. As he tried to say something to Dinesh, the patrol team leader stopped him. He said, “This much co-operation will be enough for now.” After thanking them, when the team was on its way to their camp, they noticed a young man standing with a fishing net in his hands by the riverside. The patrol team felt like the youth wanted to talk to them. When the team approached him, Debashish introduced himself to them. He said, he was willing to provide information about the Rohingyas. However, it had to be kept confidential. Residents of the village must not know what he was interested in doing.
“Finally we found an actual patriot,” the commander of the team responded cheerfully.
The commander of the patrol team reassured Debashis that utter secrecy would be maintained about his connections with the security apparatus. They decided to collect information from Debashish at least once a month. In return, he was given the assurance of an appropriate reward. After their departure, Debashish was thrilled by the thought of an opportunity to do something substantial in life.
Sitting in his own office room in Sittwe, Lee thought about the subject matter of the two letters he had just received from the army headquarters. One of the letters conveyed to him the order to organize a field exercise. The objective of the exercise was to review the war preparedness of the military units stationed along the borders with Bangladesh. In the other letter, Lee was congratulated for being promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. He hoped, if he could successfully achieve the goal for which he came to Sittwe, he would be able to attain the rank of Major General in the next five years. He wasn’t sure how to send this news to his wife and daughter. Brigadier Lee ordered his adjutant to send this news to his wife in a nice letter. He could have informed her of the news over the phone right away. But to emphasize the significance of this promotion, he chose to correspond.
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While Lee’s adjutant was in his desk preparing the letter, two men in border guard uniforms appeared before him. They said, they had come to meet Lee. When the adjutant wanted to know what their purpose was, they said it was confidential, and they had strict orders not to let anyone know. The adjutant stared at them for a few moments before heading to Lee’s office room, leaving the border guards at his desk.
When the adjutant returned, he showed the border guards the way to Lee’s office after checking their identity cards. After entering, the two soldiers gave a stiff salute to Lee. Lee told them to sit in the two chairs in front of him. When Lee wanted to know how much work had been done, they briefed him all about their visit to the fishing village. And of course, the vivid description of the young informer played the music Lee had been waiting for. Then the two guards waited for Lee’s next orders. Lee said, the orders would be given as soon as possible. Until then, they were to keep their eyes and ears alert while performing their duties. After the soldiers had left, Lee instructed his adjutant to call the head of the army intelligence. He wanted to find out how much ground work had been done for operation Blood Red Greetings. Five minutes later, the adjutant came in with the news that manpower for the operation was ready. Only the orders were needed to commence the operation.
After receiving the news of Lee’s promotion, his wife and daughter decided to spend a few days with Lee in Sittwe. Su was more eager to see her father. This made Kim suspicious. However, she refrained from expressing her apprehension. She just kept a watchful eye on her daughter as Su left home to buy some new clothes before the journey.
Su used to buy her clothes from the exclusive departmental stores. However, when she came out of her home, instead of heading for her favorite shop, she headed straight for the Lake Inia. At a deserted spot near the pagoda, she found her loved one, anxiously waiting. Upon noticing the question in his look, Su informed him of their journey to Sittwe the next morning. Sun expressed his satisfaction when he heard about her father’s promotion. Somehow, the young man had noticed the lingering depression in Su. At first, she hesitated. Then she conveyed the real reason behind her father’s promotion. Her father had been sent to Sittwe with a special assignment. She suspected, her father’s mission had something to do with the Rohingyas. Hence, she came to warn Sun. She farther added that later she would try to get more information after meeting her dad. By then, as the darkness of the approaching night had already invaded the banks of the Lake Inia, Su couldn’t clearly see Sun’s eyes. Nonetheless, she could feel the terror of inconceivable origin in those eyes. He took a deep breath. Su had been holding his hand, but his hand felt somewhat lifeless. At last, Sun told her, he would be heading for Aung Syke that very night. Su didn’t expect it. She asked him when they would meet again. There was no reply. He kissed her forehead and asked her to return home.
In their grove, Rahim Mollah and his brother Anis Mollah were looking for two good trees to donate for the temple, with the monks who had come from Hin Kao’s temple. Rahim and Anis decided to donate one tree each. After being shown the location of the two trees. the monks informed, they would come to fell the trees with a hired transport when it was convenient for them to do so. On the third week of January, being dry, the weather was excellent. The ground was covered with dry leaves and the crunchy sound of walking over them reminded Rahim of his childhood. Both his childhood and adolescent period were spent well. Only Almighty knew what the future had in store for him. He hoped, this donation would come in handy in future.
When the monks returned to their temple from the grove, Hin Kao had been talking with Than Kin about the renovation which was to be done inside the temple. The monks informed them about the donation. Than Kin smiled quietly, expressing his pleasure. He said to his mentor, “Master, you worry for no reason. Do you see now, how easily the wood has been managed?”
Somberly the priest asked his disciple, “Did the Mollah brothers donate willingly?”
Than Kin replied, “They have agreed to give us the trees and that’s all that matters. How can we tell what they have in their hearts? You’re unnecessarily worrying about it again.”
Looking steadily at his disciple, the priest said, “I am not worrying. I’m thinking about Buddha’s message of tolerance and fraternity. In Buddhism there’s no place for bullying.”
The smile on Than Kin’s face was replaced by a shadow of uncertainty after hearing this. Though unwillingly, he had to agree. He said, “Of course, can’t afford to forget Buddha’s message of peace and fraternity.”
Once Than Kin was finished talking to his mentor, the old monk stood up, and slowly moved towards the table which had the bowls of rice collected by his monks. He started filling the smaller bowls of the monks from the larger white bowl. After it was done, all the monks prostrated and began their meditation. While the meditation went on, silently Than Kin came out from the rear of the congregation. He went to a truck depo a mile or two from the temple. His purpose was to rent four trucks with the capacity of carrying five tons each. Returning to the temple, he gave secret instructions to two of his subordinates to cut ten teak trees instead of two, from the Mollah family’s grove. When they said this was a kind of burglary, and questioned its ethical implications, Than Kin shot back, “Trees of the Buddhist land will be felled for the Buddhist temple, why would it be burglary?”
“The owners of that piece of Buddhist land are Muslims. So, if we cut ten trees instead of two, without their permission, this issue may start a rift between the two communities.”
“Let your seniors think about the consequence for cutting a few extra trees. Right now, do as I tell you to do, for that is your duty.”
The clock in the temple showed five in the evening when Than Kin had this conversation with the monks. He farther instructed the monks to go to the grove with the hired trucks, at midnight.