HERAT CITY - Nearly 400 schoolgirls and teachers had to be hospitalised after being poisoned in western Herat province, an official said on Monday.

Mohammad Rafiq Sherzai, the zonal hospital spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News that students and teachers of the Naveen Safla and Khwaja Abdul Walid School in Injil district.

He said the incident, in which 390 students and teachers were poisoned, took place at around 8am. All those affected were hospitalised.

Last week, 190 schoolgirls were poisoned at the Habib Al-Mustafa School in Injil and another 160 at Babaji and Abdul Ali Tokhi Schools in Herat City.

According to Herat Zonal Hospital officials, more than 500 schoolgirls and teachers have been poisoned this last week. Officials call the series of poisoning incidents a foreign conspiracy.

Deputy Governor Asiluddin Jame recently alleged: “Those who were previously kidnapping and terrorising people have now resorted to poisoning schoolgirls.

 “We believe that foreigners are involved in such cases; it seems those who were previously kidnapping children and killing them are now poisoning schoolgirls,” he said.  (Pajhwok)