This is believed to be the first time this type of attack has occurred since the Taliban took power in August 2021, beginning to suppress the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls.
Girls go to school in Kabul, Afghanistan on March 25, 2023. Photo: AP
Girls are barred from education after sixth grade, including university, and women are barred from most jobs and public spaces. Theeducation official said the person who orchestrated the poisoning had a personal grudge but did not elaborate.
The attacks took place in Sar-e-Pul province on Saturday and Sunday.
Nearly 80 schoolgirls were poisoned in Sangcharak district, including 60 students at Naswan-e-Kabod Aab school and 17 others at Naswan-e-Faizabad school, said Mohammad Rahmani, head of the provincial education department.
“Both elementary schools are close to each other and were targeted one after the other,” he told the AP. “We took the students to the hospital and they are all fine now.”
An investigation by the Afghan Ministry of Education is ongoing and initial investigations suggest that someone with a grudge paid a third party to carry out the attacks.
Mr Rahmani did not provide information about how the girls were poisoned or the nature of their injuries, nor did he give the girls' ages but said they were in grades one to six.
Neighboring Iran has been rocked by a wave of poisonings, mostly at girls’ schools, since November last year. Thousands of students said they fell ill from toxic fumes in the incident. But there is no information about who might be behind the incident or what chemicals were used.
Mai Khanh (according to AP, CNA)
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