250 Afghan students hospitalised after being poisoned

Khost (Afghanistan), May 15 (Xinhua-ANI): At least 250 boy students were poisoned Tuesday at a high school in Afghanistan's eastern province of Khost, a provincial police sources said.

"As many as 250 boy students have been admitted to a hospital in provincial capital Khost city Tuesday morning and our initial investigation indicates that the students were poisoned after the contamination of their drinking water in Warza High School of Ismail Khil district," provincial police chief Sardar Mohammad Zazai told Xinhua.

He said some of the students were allowed home after treatments but several others were still in the hospital for medical treatment.

No group has claimed the responsibility for the incident so far.

This is the third incident of its kind since the Afghan educational year began in late March. More than 150 girl students were hospitalized in similar incident in northern Takhar province while dozens of girls poisoned in northern Balkh province late last month.

During its rule which collapsed in late 2001, the Taliban regime had banned school for girls and confined women to their houses.

Five education workers were killed and seven other workers injured when two vehicles carrying them attacked in Urgun district of neighboring Paktika province by gunmen on Tuesday May 8.

Afghan Education Minister Farooq Wardak said on Sunday that more than 530 schools had remained closed due to insecurity and thus over 300,000 students have been deprived of education rights in 11 provinces. (Xinhua-ANI)