Nearly 100 school girls including four female teachers were poisoned in two separate incidents at public schools in the Sancharak district of the northern Sar-e-Pul province, local sources said.
One source told KabulNow that the first incident occurred on Saturday at a primary public school in the district’s Kabudabad area where up to 75 students and four female instructors were poisoned and taken to local hospitals for treatment.
While many were discharged within a few hours, at least 17 students remained in Sar-e-Pul’s central hospital, and six others were admitted to Sancharak Hospital.
These girls showed symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, headaches, and dizziness, the source added.
However, another source said that the number of students poisoned is as high as 80.
In another incident on Sunday morning, at least 15 school girls were poisoned at Faizabad primary school in the Aab Kalan area of the district and later admitted to the Sancharak hospital for treatment, a source in the Sancharak hospital confirmed to KabulNow.
The source stated that the conditions of the girls admitted to this hospital are not serious.
The reasons behind the poisoning of school girls and female instructors in Sar-e-Pul are unclear.
Taliban officials in the province have not yet commented.
In Afghanistan, school-age girls are among the country’s most vulnerable groups who are suffering from insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty. The Taliban’s series of bans on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and other severe restrictions have compounded this vulnerability and created a climate of fear for these girls.
