Talibans poison schoolgirls to discourage education
AFP, Khost
Three Afghan schoolgirls were in critical condition after being poisoned in the southeastern town of Khost in what officials said yesterday was a Taliban attempt to discourage female education in the region.A Taliban spokesman denied the allegation. The girls, aged between 10 and 15, ate poisoned biscuits offered to them by a man on Wednesday, said the spokeswoman for the provincial department of Women's Affairs, Shahina Sharif. The military commander of the province Khialbaz Khan said the ousted Taliban militia were behind the poisoning to "deter girls from going to school." However, Taliban spokesman Litfullah Hakimi, speaking to AFP from an unknown location, denied the allegation. The girls had been attending the only school which accepts females in Khost. Meanwhile, Afghan officials said they had arrested a man who was carrying a bomb in the city near the Pakistani border. "A male foreigner was arrested on Wednesday late in the afternoon near a checkpoint in the east of the city," provincial police chief Sabur Allayar said. "He was in possession of a bomb and a Kalashnikov assault rifle -- he was trying to enter the city to commit terrorist acts," he said.
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