Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
A local education official in Afghanistan has alleged that close to 80 schoolgirls were poisoned in Naswan-e-Kabod Aab and Naswan-e-Faizabad primary schools respectively and have since been hospitalized.
The attacks happened on Saturday and Sunday
The head of the Provincial Education Department, Mohammad Rahmani said the poisonings happened in Sangcharak district, northern Afghanistan.
Rahmani said the person who mastermind the poisoning had a personal grudge but did not elaborate, according to Sky News.
The Afghan education official revealed that 60 students were poisoned in Naswan-e-Kabod Aab school and 17 others poisoned in Naswan-e-Faizabad school.
It was thought to be the first time this kind of assault happened since the Taliban grabbed power in August 2021 and began their crackdown on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls.
Truth Live News reports that girls have been prohibited from education beyond sixth grade, including university, and women are barred from most jobs and public spaces.
Since the ban on women’s education, girls have access to schools, while hundreds of thousands of girls and young women are living in fear and repression since the Taliban takeover.
“Both primary schools are near to each other and were targeted one after the other,” Rahmani added. “We shifted the students to the hospital and now they are all fine.”
The department’s investigation is ongoing and initial inquiries show that someone with a grudge paid a third party to carry out the attacks, Rahmani alleges.
However, he did not speak more on how the girls were poisoned or the nature of their injuries and did not give their ages but said they were in grades one to six.