Forbidden Affair: A Tale from Arakan

For centuries, Rahim Mollah’s ancestors lived peacefully with their Buddhist neighbours in the village of Aung Syke, Myanmar. After the 9/11 incident, the change that took place in the world also affected this little village. Soon, the Rohingyas took on the role of the Jews of Nazi Germany in the late thirties while many Buddhist monks and the Myanmar army played the role of the Nazi Party. In this situation, the entire Mollah clan became a helpless victim of the genocidal intention of two Buddhist monks, Than Kin and Win Thura. While these two monks incited the Buddhists against the Rohingyas, the top generals of Tatmadaw had their own plans to evict all Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar. The code name of the drive was “Operation Blood Red Greetings”. In order to prepare the ground they organized a clandestine operation against a little fishing village in Maung Dao. In the meantime, Su and Rafiq got separated from each other by the turbulent events that were to change their lives forever. Only a few months back, secretly they uttered their matrimonial vows in a Buddhist temple. Their parents had no idea of it. Su happened to be the only child of Colonel and later Brigadier Lee Bu Sun who was placed in command of the military units in the state of Rakhain. He was the commander of the thirty third light infantry division, spearheading the drive against the Rohingya Muslims in the name of fighting terror. In the novel, Su played the role ofa savior, saving the lives of many innocent Rohingyas from the clasp of his father. Eventually, Su was forced to flee from her country. She ended up in Istanbul, Turkey, as an asylum seeker.