Arakan, which now bordered East Pakistan (soon to become Bangladesh), a militant outfit calling itself the Mujahid Party took up arms and called for a separate Muslim homeland. Then the Karen National Union rose in rebellion, demanding a breakaway republic for the Karen ethnic minority. The army, nearly half of which were British-trained Karens (a “martial race”), splintered. By 1949, Burma was a sea of rebels and bandits. At the height of the insurgency that year, Communist and Karen forces came within miles of Rangoon.
