Jakarta, IO – The Iranian government announced that they had arrested the alleged perpetrators in connection with a spate of poisoning cases of schoolgirls that had occurred since November last year. An unspecified number of perpetrators were arrested by authorities in six provinces, reported The Guardian, Wednesday (8/3).
The arrests were made after hundreds of people, including parents and teachers, protested against a poisoning of more than 5,000 schoolgirls. Last week, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the perpetrators should be tracked down and arrested.
According to Iran’s Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi, a special intelligence agency has been deployed to investigate a number of people who are suspected of being involved in and producing dangerous substances that are spread through the air.
“Based on the intelligence and research measures of the intelligence agencies, a number of people have been arrested in five provinces and the relevant agencies are conducting a full investigation,” Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi told state television.
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Mohammad-Hassan Asafari, member of the Iranian parliament’s fact-finding commission, said that around 5,000 girls from 230 schools in 25 Iranian provinces have been poisoned since last year. This tragedy sparked a new wave of public anger after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, a few days after she was arrested by the moral police on suspicion of breaking the mandatory hijab rule. (bp)