Kabul , Afghanistan ( CNN ) -- A hospital in northern Afghanistan admitted 160 schoolgirls Tuesday after they were poisoned , a Takhar province police official said . Their classrooms might have been sprayed with a toxic material before the girls entered , police spokesman Khalilullah Aseer said . He blamed the Taliban . The incident , the second in a week 's time , was reported at the Aahan Dara Girls School in Taluqan , the provincial capital . The girls , ages 10 to 20 , complained of headaches , dizziness and vomiting before being taken to the hospital , said Hafizullah Safi , director of the provincial health department . More than half of them were discharged within a few hours of receiving treatment , Safi said . The health department collected blood samples and sent them to Kabul for testing . Last week , more than 120 girls and three teachers were admitted to a hospital after a similar suspected poisoning . `` The Afghan people know that the terrorists and the Taliban are doing these things to threaten girls and stop them going to school , '' Aseer said last week . `` That 's something we and the people believe . Now we are implementing democracy in Afghanistan and we want girls to be educated , but the government 's enemies do n't want this . '' But earlier this week , the Taliban denied responsibility , instead blaming U.S. and NATO forces for the poisonings in an attempt to `` defame '' the insurgent group . Taliban tightens grip on Afghan schools . There have been several instances of girls being poisoned in schools in recent years . In April , also in Takhar province , more than 170 women and girls were hospitalized after drinking apparently poisoned well water at a school . Local health officials blamed the acts on extremists opposed to women 's education . While nearly all the incidents involve girls , earlier this month , nearly 400 boys at a school in Khost province fell ill after drinking water from a well that a health official said may have been poisoned . The Taliban recently demanded the closure of schools in two eastern provinces . In Ghazni , the school closure was in retaliation for the government 's ban on motorbikes often used by insurgents . People in Wardak said the Taliban has been a little more lenient and has allowed schools to open late after making changes to the curriculum . Tortured Afghan teen : 'The same should be done ' to attackers . The battle indicates broader fears about Afghanistan 's future amid the drawdown of U.S. troops in the country . NATO leaders last week signed off on U.S. President Barack Obama 's exit strategy from Afghanistan , which calls for an end to combat operations next year and the withdrawal of the U.S.-led international military force by the end of 2014 . During the Taliban 's rule from 1996 to 2001 , many Afghan girls were not allowed to attend school . The schools began reopening after the regime was toppled by the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 . However , observers say abuse of women remains common in the post-Taliban era and is often accepted in conservative and traditional families , where women are barred from school and sometimes subjected to domestic violence . Afghan Education Minister Dr. Farooq Wardak told the Education World Forum in London in January 2011 that the Taliban had abandoned its opposition to education for girls , but the group has never confirmed that . Saving Face : The struggle and survival of Afghan women .
Poison may have been sprayed into classrooms before students entered , police spokesman says . Students complained of headaches , fatigue and nausea ; many remain hospitalized . It 's the second such poisoning in a week 's period . A police spokesman blamed the government , which has ordered the closure of some schools .