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Scores of Afghan girls ill in third school poisoning

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  • Scores of Afghan girls ill in third school poisoning

    Scores of Afghan girls ill in third school poisoning
    Tue May 12, 2009 7:38am EDT

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    By Hamid Shalizi

    AFTA BACHI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Five young girls slipped briefly into comas and nearly 100 were taken to hospital after a gas attack on their school on Tuesday, the third in a series of such incidents north of Kabul, Afghan officials said.

    The early morning mass-poisoning at Qazaaq school was likely the work of Taliban sympathizers hostile to girls' education, the head of security for Kapisa province told Reuters.

    "We don't think that the Taliban have done this, but the people who collaborate with and support the Taliban have done this," said Afghan Colonel Sha Agha, who is in charge of security for the second district of Kapisa, where the school is located.

    "We have taken security measures to prevent such incidents happening again, and by doing more patrols, I am checking on schools during the night," he added.

    The symptoms were the same as those shown by victims of suspected attacks on two girls' schools in nearby Charikar town. One poisoning took place on Monday and another on April 26. Scores of pupils were taken ill in each case.

    In the latest attack more than 130 people were affected, with 98 students and 6 teachers admitted to hospital, said doctor and provincial public health head Wahid Rahim. He said five had slipped into comas but all had been revived.

    Patients were vomiting, dizzy and some lost consciousness.

    "There was a very bad smell in my classroom this morning and the teacher immediately told us to evacuate, but we couldn't walk to get out of the school, we were very weak, sick and dizzy. When I opened my eyes we were in hospital," said 12 year-old Leda.

    "I am so sad, what went wrong with our school? I want to study," the sixth-grader said from her hospital bed in a ward of around 20 pale girls, most with drips in their arms.

    "We knew about the incident in Charikar, but we didn't think such incidents would happen in our school. Right now we are very scared to continue with our education, to learn," said Aara Gul, 15, waiting for medication.

    EDUCATION UNDER ATTACK

    Unusually, the three incidents took place in a part of the country that was never under the firm control of the hardline Taliban and kept its girls' schools open while the austere Islamists ruled most of the country.

    "Whoever has done this is against peace and security and improvement for women in the country. Surely it will have a negative impact on education, but we will never close the doors of schools for girls," said health chief Rahim.

    There have been no clues as to what the gas was in either case or where it came from. Blood samples from the Charikar attacks have been sent to the nearby U.S. Bagram airbase but results have not yet come back.

    Attacks on girls schools have increased in the past year, particularly in the Taliban's eastern and southern heartlands, as an insurgency has gathered strength. When the Taliban were in power in Kabul they banned women from work and schools.

    Last year a group of schoolgirls in Kandahar had acid thrown in their faces by men who objected to them attending school.

    (Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin and Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Alex Richardson)

    © Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
    ----------------------
    can't come up with a one liner to properly express myself.
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    Very Sick Minds, and they say Islam is a 'peaceful Religion' and that they treat women as equals, yeah right.

    Comment


    • #3
      Chaobaum Armour Reply

      "they say Islam is a 'peaceful Religion' and that they treat women as equals, yeah right."

      This isn't about Islam. There are plenty of Islamic girls in other parts of the world who are safely going to school.

      This is about azzholes. Whoever has done this are world-class azzholes and need their tickets punched permanently.
      "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
      "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by S-2 View Post
        [B]
        This isn't about Islam. There are plenty of Islamic girls in other parts of the world who are safely going to school.
        Indeed. We've had one staying with us for the past two years. Her Islamic government paid for her to come to NZ and do her university degree.
        In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

        Leibniz

        Comment


        • #5
          Parihaka Reply

          Allow me to rephrase-

          This isn't about Islam. There are plenty of muslim girls going safely to school in other parts of Islam to include the 140m muslim citizens of India.

          This is about azzholes. Whoever has done this are world-class azzholes and need their tickets punched permanently.

          Hope that clarifies.
          "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
          "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

          Comment


          • #6
            The Talibans in Afghanistan and some Talibans groups in Pakistan's NW Frontier (not all) are strongly against girls attending schools, and have bombed such schools before. The difference is that these schools are being attacked by gas.

            Taliban campaign targets girls' schools
            Feb 2009 [Telegraph] The notice pinned to the board outside the Mohammed Hussain Maila girls' school in Dara Adamkhel was uncompromising: "We have decided to bomb the school building. If any of the students shows up and dies as a result, she will be responsible for her own death."

            It was a warning the young pupils at the school in Pakistan's North-West Frontier knew should be taken seriously. Four other schools in the lawless tribal region area had already been bombed. Within a matter of days, half of the 506 pupils at the school had been withdrawn.

            Across the border in Afghanistan, the Taliban's antipathy towards the education of girls is well-documented, and has led to the murders of at least 61 teachers in the past 18 months and the razing of 183 schools. But now hard-line Islamists in Pakistan - known as local Taliban - have launched their own campaign against girls' schools, claiming the pupils are being "westernised". ...
            Last edited by Merlin; 15 May 09,, 11:33.

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