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As the Gov­ern­ment moves to im­ple­ment Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSOs) af­ter the State of Emer­gency (SoE) ex­pires on Jan­u­ary 31, res­i­dents of Rich­plain in Diego Mar­tin say their com­mu­ni­ty does not re­quire such in­ter­ven­tion. Still, some con­cede that the stig­ma of the area be­ing a crime hotspot and its as­so­ci­a­tion with the late Ja­maat al Mus­limeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr could make its in­clu­sion like­ly.

Giv­ing his name on­ly as Mike, a Rich­plain res­i­dent shrugged and said, “We here nor­mal, yuh know. This is a nor­mal com­mu­ni­ty, yuh know. Don’t mind it might have the lil small quar­relling and ting, the lil do­mes­tic some­thing ... that’s noth­ing, we go fix that. But here cool. I can’t tell you when last I hear gun­shots up in Rich­plain here.”

Com­mu­ni­ty el­der John, aged 72, de­clared, “No, no, no. We are a peace-lov­ing peo­ple in this area. Every­body go about their busi­ness, mind their own, and every­thing is good. We have no prob­lem in Rich­plain.”