KABUL, Afghanistan — Nearly 80 girls were hospitalized for poisoning in two separate attacks on their primary schools in northern Afghanistan, a local education official said Sunday.
It is believed to be the first time this type of aggression has occurred since the Taliban came to power in August 2021 and began their crackdown on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls.
Girls are barred from education beyond sixth grade, including university, and women are barred from most jobs and public spaces.
The education official said the person who orchestrated the poisoning had a personal grudge, but did not elaborate.
The attacks were registered in the province of Sar-e-Pul during Saturday and Sunday.
About 80 female students were poisoned in Sangcharak district, said Mohammad Rahmani, head of the provincial education department. He added that 60 students were poisoned at Naswan-e-Kabod Aab school and another 17 were poisoned at Naswan-e-Faizabad school.
“Both elementary schools are close to each other and they were attacked one after the other,” he told The Associated Press. “We transferred the students to the hospital and now they are all fine.”
The department’s investigation is ongoing and its preliminary results show that someone with a grudge paid a third party to carry out the attacks, Rahmani said.
He gave no information about 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.
Neighboring Iran has been rocked by a wave of poisonings, mainly in girls’ schools, since last November. Thousands of students said they got sick from the noxious gases in the incidents. But there has been no information about who might be behind the incidents or what, if any, chemicals were used.
The case occurred in Wisconsin.
