Damage Control

Taliban Denies Role in Poison Attacks

On schoolgirls.

The Taliban on Sunday denied involvement in the poison attacks on the Bibi Haji School in Afghanistan, which sickened 125 people, including female teachers and young girls. Police said poisonous chemicals may have been sprayed in the classrooms. In the east of the country, two schools have been burned in the last month. Militants who are against education for women are believed to be behind the attacks; the Taliban outlawed education for women from 1996 to 2001. But a spokesman said that the Taliban “strongly condemn” the attacks “and promise that if we arrest the perpetrators of such actions and cases, we will give them punishments in line with Sharia.”