Roughly 1,500 students and teachers stayed home from a Kandahar City school Thursday, a day after attackers threw acid at a group of girls as they walked to class, said the principal.

Mahmood Qaderi, the principal of the Mirwais Minna girls' school, said the attack has left everyone afraid.

"After the incident, all the teachers and students were worried about their security and they were telling me, until security improves, they will not go to the school," said Qaderi.

Three Afghan girls were seriously burned Wednesday after two men on a motorcycle threw acid on them as they walked to the high school. The girls were walking with five other students.

The Afghan government condemned the attack and blamed the "country's enemies," a reference normally used to describe Taliban militants. Girls were banned from schools under the Taliban's hardline Islamist regime, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

The Taliban has denied any involvement in the attack.

"We totally deny it. We didn't do this thing," said spokesperson Qari Yousaf Asmazi. "I don't like these incidents to occur with civilians."

Qaderi called the attackers the enemy of the country and of education.

"They want our youth to be illiterate and not get an education. They did this terrorist act," he said.

With files from the Associated Press