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http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/201082513452971438.html

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 
22:56 Mecca time, 19:56 GMT

'Gas poisoning' hits Afghan girls 

           
             A suspicious gas leak at a girls school in Kabul has all the 
hallmarks of an attack by the Taliban 
     
Dozens of students and teachers at a girls' school in Kabul, Afghanistan's 
capital, have been sickened by an unknown gas that spread through classrooms, 
education officials say.

Wednesday's incident follows a similar pattern seen in other recent attacks at 
girls' schools involving an airborne substance which officials say could be 
some form of gas.

Those have raised fears that the Taliban and other allied groups who oppose 
female education are using a new method to scare them away from classes.

Asif Nang, a spokesman for the education ministry, said the girls, of differing 
ages and belonging to the Totia Girls School in Kabul's east, were being 
treated in hospital.

      in depth 

           
              Toxic gas hits Afghan schoolgirls 
              Afghan girls brave Taliban threats 
     
Some had been discharged by late afternoon.

"It looks like it is another case of gas poisoning, but it is being 
investigated now," Nang said.

The Afghan government, however, did not suggest who may have been responsible 
for the apparent attack.

"We were in our classroom when I smelt a bad smell. Our teacher walked outside 
the class to find out whether the smell is just in our classroom or everywhere 
at school," Farida, a 12-year-old schoolgirl being treated at the local 
hospital, said.

"When she found out that the smell is everywhere at school she informed the 
principal of the school and then took us out of the classroom."

Series of attacks

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Kabul, said the incident is the 
latest in a series of attacks against schoolgirls.

     
      Schoolgirls have been treated for dizziness and nausea following 
suspected gas attack [AFP] 
"This has happened a couple of times before, mainly in the northern province of 
Kunduz. At the time, it was also said, that these girls were poisoned and 
officials pointed the finger at the Taliban and rightly so," she said.

"However, there is still no hard conclusion on who is behind this attack and 
what kind of poisoning is taking place."

The Taliban banned education for girls during their Afghan rule from 1996-2001, 
but have condemned similar attacks in the past. 

They have, however, set fire to dozens of schools, threatened teachers and even 
attacked schoolgirls in rural areas.

In one attack in Kandahar in 2008,around 15 girls and teachers were sprayed 
with acid by men on motorbikes.

In parts of southern and eastern Afghanistan, particularly in Taliban 
strongholds, schools for girls still remain closed.




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