About 1,200 university students in Iran were admitted to hospital due to food poisoning a day before their anti-regime protest, leading many to suspect the role of the government. In the past few days, students of Kharazmi and Ark universities experienced symptoms like vomiting, severe bodyache and hallucinations, the Telegram channel of the national student union claimed on Thursday.
Officials have claimed that water-borne bacteria was the cause of the symptoms, but the student union believes that they were deliberately poisoned.
Some days before, similar food poisoning breakouts were reported at two other universities, Al-Zahra University in Tehran and Isfahan University of Technology, and both were believed to have originated from canteens.
“Our past experiences of similar incidents at the Isfahan University negates the authorities’ reason for this mass food poisoning,” the group wrote on Telegram.
According to reports, some university clinics closed down or ran out of supplies to treat dehydration, leading to speculation that the outbreak was planned to curb the three-day strike in response to the Iranian regime’s claims to have shut down the controversial morality police, Arab News reported.
Following the incident, students of Isfahan University protested, demanding the resignation of the university officials.
“We don’t want rotten food, we don’t want murderous authorities!,” they chanted, Iran International TV reported.
Former Iran’s president extends support to protesters
Iranian’s former Mohammad Khatami came out in support of the protesters and urged the officials to consider their demands “before it is too late”.
The protests have been pressing the government to outlaw hijab laws, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died in custody after she was detained for breaking the hijab dress code.
Khatami said the “beautiful slogan” of “woman, life, freedom” showed Iranian society was moving towards a better future.
The 79-year-old leader, who served two terms as president between 1997 and 2005, criticised the arrests of students in the security forces’ crackdown.
The comments came in a statement to mark Student Day on Wednesday.
(With inputs from agencies)
