Kabul: Nearly 80 Afghan girls were hospitalized after allegedly being poisoned at their schools in northern Afghanistan. The poisoning targeted two girls’ schools in the Afghan province of Sar-e Pol. The incidents come amid intense scrutiny over girls’ education in the war-torn country since the Taliban took over and barred most teenage female students and after a wave of poison attacks on girls’ schools in Iran.
Mohammad Rahmani, who heads the provincial education department, said that the incident took place in Sangcharak district. He also stated that 60 students were poisoned in Naswan-e-Kabod Aab school and 17 others poisoned in Naswan-e-Faizabad school, as reported by ABP News.
“Both primary schools are near to each other and were targeted one after the other,” said. “We shifted the students to the hospital and now they are all fine.”
The investigation is underway and initial inquiries showed that someone with a grudge paid a third party to carry out the attacks, Rahmani said, as per the report. He gave no information on how the girls were poisoned or the nature of their injuries. Rahmani did not give their ages but said they were in grades 1 to 6.
Sar-e-Pol’s police spokesperson Den Mohammad did not give any details about the substance that was used or who was behind the incident. Nazari said that the girls were rushed to the hospital and are in “good condition”, nobody has been arrested so far.
