JOIN USSixteen people have been arrested over the alleged serial poisoning of schoolgirls in Afghanistan, although some doctors now suspect psychological stress could be behind the “attacks”, officials said on Tuesday.
The sweeping arrests come as desperate authorities try to put an end to the mysterious illnesses — usually mass fainting episodes — that have struck scores of schoolgirls in northern Takhar province almost daily for the past two weeks.
Among those held are a Pakistani woman working in a clinic and a Taliban insurgent leader, provincial spokesman Mostafa Rasuli said. All have denied any involvement, and no proof of poisoning has been found, he said. An expert in the field is convinced that the incidents are classic examples of mass hysteria, rather than poisoning.
Some doctors in the area now share this belief, an education ministry spokesman, Abdul Saboor Ghufrani, said today — a day when 60 schoolgirls in two separate schools were affected.
“There have been a number of suspected poisoning cases of schoolgirls in Takhar province recently, but initial investigation by health and security teams in the area have failed to detect traces of any poison,” Ghufrani said. “In some cases doctors have reported they suspect a psychological cause behind these incidents, but we cannot yet definitely rule out the possibility of deliberate attempt by some group to sicken our students.”