TEHRAN- The use of non-toxic substances was responsible for the occurrences that caused public fear during the last several months, according to Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, which concluded that no poisonous substances were employed in the purported poisoning attacks on school girls around the nation.

The ministry detailed the findings of a comprehensive investigation it conducted into the inexplicable episodes in a statement issued on Friday. 

The mysterious incidents began in late November in the city of Qom, when approximately 50 female students fell ill and needed to be taken to hospital.

Since then, several more schools in Qom, Tehran, Kermanshah, and Ardabil in the west and Ardabil in the northwest have allegedly suffered consistent poisonings of a similar nature, necessitating the hospitalization of a large number of young pupils.

The instances followed violent protests that broke out in Tehran in the middle of September when Mahsa Amini, 22, died while being held by police. 

The statement said, “There were reports of the infirmity of students in some schools of the country and they gradually started to rise. There was an inverse relationship between the gradual decline of riots and the rapid rise of the incidents resulting in the publication of the students’ infirmity.”

The statement emphasized that the Interior Ministry, Health Ministry, and the president immediately issued strict orders to investigate the matter, and the Intelligence Ministry immediately mobilized all its intelligence, security, technical, operational, and laboratory capabilities to identify the causes and factors.

The ministry said that five elements, including stink bombs, pepper spray, odorous agents that cause panic, anti-security objectives, and agents that cause mass hysteria, were involved in causing or triggering illness at various schools around the country.

Based on the ministry’s field and laboratory results, “malingering” was one of the proven causes of the occurrences, with the goal of fun, skipping lectures and examinations, and, in a few cases, fomenting unrest and riots.

The statement added, “Toxic substances have not been distributed in any of the nation’s schools, but non-toxic agents that have caused panic have been used accidentally or purposefully in some reported settings.”

It went on to say that some persons accused with taking those substances were identified, summoned, or detained, and that their cases were delivered to court.

The statement reiterated its main finding that there hasn’t been a network in the nation for the distribution of poisonous substances, stressing that there are, however, many cyber networks both inside and outside the country that create and spread rumors to cause school closures, elicit protests from parents of students, and purposefully accuse the Islamic establishment.

According to the statement, several similar networks have been located and traced, and all of their members have been or will be charged with crimes.

The Intelligence Ministry further emphasized the enemies’ “completely obvious and undeniable” participation in provoking the attacks. 

Based on the statement, the topic has received a lot of attention recently from people, organizations, groups, and the Western media.

In the chain of hybrid warfare, the statement said, “A number of foreign politicians, foreign institutions, and international organizations, who played a role in igniting the conflict, formed a link.”