Iranian law enforcement arrested several people involved in the recent series of poisonings of school students in five provinces of the country, Deputy Interior Minister Sayed Majid Mirahmadi said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th March, 2023) Iranian law enforcement arrested several people involved in the recent series of poisonings of school students in five provinces of the country, Deputy Interior Minister Sayed Majid Mirahmadi said on Tuesday.
"Based on the intelligence and research measures of the intelligence agencies, a number of people have been detained in five provinces and the relevant agencies are conducting a full investigation," Mirahmadi was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
The head of the committee investigating possible causes of the poisonings, Mostafa Ganei, said that they had been caused by a stimulant and not by a poisonous substance as suspected previously. However, he did not name a specific "stimulant" and how it would affect a child's physical condition.
A series of poisonings of Iranian school children started in November 2022. The first case was registered in the city of Qom, where 18 girls were poisoned. According to official statistics, over 5,000 cases of poisoning of children from 230 schools in 25 provinces of the Islamic Republic have been recorded since November.
Senior Iranian officials alleged that the poisonings could be a deliberate action organized by "external forces." Iranian lawmakers connected the poisonings with the recent protests that broke out in the country in mid-September 2022, ignited by the death of a young Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, after she was detained by the morality police.
Petrochemical products, nitrogen and other gasses have been named among possible causes of poisonings so far.
