More than 80 Afghan students, mostly girls, and their teachers were poisoned over the last two days, according to local officials on Monday. No critical injuries were reported. The attacks mirrored those seen in Iran. They are meant to control girls and women and keep the girls out of school.

Witness accounts claim that students and teachers immediately fell unconscious after entering their classrooms. This suggests that gas may have been used. A village elder spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject.

18 boys were among those harmed in the two attacks on Saturday and Sunday, according to Ayamuddin Yoldash, an information officer at the Directorate of Information and Culture of Sar-e Pol province, in northern Afghanistan.

Two schools were affected.

Shafiullah Rahimi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Disaster Management, said that “in one school, three teachers and 60 students were affected. In the second school, four teachers and 22 students were affected.”

All students and teachers were in stable condition by Monday morning, said another official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

An investigation is underway, though authorities did not provide details on a suspected motive behind the attacks. In rural Afghanistan, co-ed classes are not unusual until the end of elementary school. These classes have continued under the Taliban government, which has banned women from universities and closed schools to girls in seventh grade. The attacks are very much like those in Iran. Amnesty International has counted 300 suspected gas attacks on more than 100 girls schools as of late April. Students and their parents live with anxiety and frustration as the children try to get an education. Some parents say they may stop sending their children to school. That’s understandable but it is exactly what the Taliban wants. It is why they attack schools – to intimidate Afghan citizens into submitting to the Taliban’s draconian ways.

Girls’ education has become one of the most divisive issues in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over, 20 months ago. The Taliban-run government says that the bans are temporary but there is no timeline for reopening schools and universities. If the bad old days of the past under Taliban control are any guide, they won’t reopen at all.

The first attack happened on Saturday. 63 people were poisoned at Kabud Aab school for girls. Those poisoned included three female teachers, one male teacher, another school staffer, and a parent of one student. The second attack happened on Sunday in the same area. 22 female students and four female teachers were poisoned at Faizabad school. Students were taken to a local hospital suffering from nausea and shortness of breath. Most of the students were released from the hospital by Sunday evening. Local media showed videos of students being directed to a minibus with IV tubes in their hands.

A doctor in Sar-e-Pul province, who did not wish to be named, told CBS News local Taliban officials were quick to provide health care for the poisoned students and had promised to find the perpetrators of the alleged poisoning.

Schoolgirls were subjected to deliberate poisonings many times before the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August 2021. The Taliban, who are generally not in favor of formal education for girls, were accused of some of the previous incidents.

May I suggest mirrors for the Taliban as they search for the perpetrators? No one is confused as to who is responsible. There is a history of this kind of brutal behavior of the Taliban. It’s how they keep Afghans under their control. They are animals.

The Taliban would like to blame the attacks on ISIS but even then, they would likely be involved.

It was unclear who might be behind the most recent poisonings, but the Taliban have faced a mounting insurgency from the ISIS faction in Afghanistan since they came back to power, including multiple attacks targeting security forces and civilians. But some Afghans note that even if they aren’t directly involved, the Taliban bear responsibility for the circumstances facing girls in the country.

“How can the Taliban claim that they have been able to bring security while two schools in Sar-e-Pul — only girls’ schools — are being targeted?” Fawzia Koofi, a former member of Afghanistan’s parliament who served as a peace negotiator with the Taliban before the group’s 2021 takeover, asked Monday in a phone interview with CBS News. “This is part of the kind of, gender apartheid measures that are taken against women and girls in Afghanistan to create an atmosphere of fear.”

Sodaba Bayani, an Afghan education and women’s rights activist, told CBS News she believed the Taliban authorities were “using chemicals to scare people off, and somehow prevent parents from letting their girls attend school, as this has occurred in Iran so many times.”

“If such incidents occur again, people may give up on girls education,” she said.

That’s the goal. Make girls just give up on getting an education.

This is exactly the kind of behavior that Biden was warned about when he bugged out of Afghanistan. America’s withdrawal was a disaster and Biden didn’t care. He just wanted out of Afghanistan and to have bragging rights for getting American troops out of there. His ignorance and stubbornness was deadly. Thirteen souls were lost at Kabul airport and many injured as the Taliban signaled what was to come with a suicide bomb attack. The Taliban immediately filled a vacuum of leadership. It was all predicted, yet Biden forged ahead as though he knew better than the military experts and his Department of Defense. What a tragedy.