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Taliban accused of gas attack on girls’ school
Was it another Taliban attack – or is mass hysteria to blame?
A girls' school in Kabul appears to be the latest to be targeted by the Taliban in a suspected gas poisoning attack. At least 46 students and nine teachers from Totia high school in Afghanistan’s capital were taken to hospital following the incident on Wednesday morning .
As reported on The First Post, the Taliban is suspected of previous poisoning attacks on girls’ schools as part of its drive to prevent females being educated.
In June, 20 students were taken to hospital after falling ill - with suspected poisoning - in the northern Sar-e-Pul province. Other intimidation techniques used by the Taliban - who banned girls' education when they were in power between 1996 and 2001 - include dropping off threatening letters and propaganda to students' homes.
In the latest incident, up to 18 people slumped to the ground unconscious as hundreds of others - mostly students aged between 16 and 18 - tried to flee their classrooms. Doctors said some of those taken to hospital remained unconscious for several hours, while others were vomiting and suffering from severe nausea.
An official at Kabul's education ministry, Mohammad Asif Nang, blamed "the enemies of women's education" for the "apparent poisoning" attack.
The attack is described as "apparent" because, unlike the waves of bombings which plague Afghanistan, the Taliban has not taken responsibility for this seemingly malicious incident nor the other cases reported around the country.
Not everyone believes that the Taliban is responsible for the attacks, at least not directly. Some argue that the true culprit is mass hysteria - brought on by fears that the influence of the resurgent Taliban is pervading even relatively secure cities like Kabul.
Medical experts say that such fears can trigger mass hysteria accompanied by actual physical illness. One theory is that the earlier reports of attacks around Afghanistan had made students fretful, leading them to believe that they too had been poisoned.
But in east Kabul, where the attack happened, few believe yesterday's attack was anything other than a chemical attack by the Taliban. Hospital head doctor Abdullah Abid said that poisoned gas was "most likely." He added: "It has happened many times before in Afghanistan." ·
