KABUL (RockedBuzz via Reuters) – About 60 Afghan girls have been hospitalized after being poisoned at their school in northern Afghanistan, police said on Thursday.
The poisoning, which targeted a girls’ school in Afghanistan’s Sar-e Pol province, comes after close scrutiny of girls’ education in the war-torn nation since the Taliban took control and barred most of teenage schoolgirls and after a wave of poison attacks on girls’ schools in neighboring Iran.
“Some unknown people entered a girls school in Sancharak district and poisoned the classes, when girls come to class they were poisoned,” said Den Mohammad Nazari, police spokesman for Sar-e-Pol, without elaborating on what substance was used or who was thought to be behind the incident.
Nazari said the girls had been taken to hospital but were in “good condition”. No one had been arrested.
Poisoning incidents in girls’ schools in neighboring Iran have sickened some 13,000 female students, mostly women, since November.
During the previous Afghan foreign-backed government, there had been several poisoning attacks, including suspected gas attacks, against girls’ schools.
The Taliban administration has barred most female students from attending high school and university since it took over in 2021, drawing condemnation from international governments and many Afghans.
The Taliban authorities have kept primary schools open for girls up to the age of about 12 and say they are in favor of girls’ education under certain conditions.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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