Thirty children sat in upper-floor classrooms at Al-Khair School in Peshawar's Dir Colony when the ceiling gave way. The structure was three stories high. Peshawar Capital City Police chief Mian Saeed stated that 32 children and one teacher arrived dead at Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), while two bodies were shifted to Naseerullah Khan Babar Memorial Hospital. All victims were 13 years old or younger.
The owner, who ran the school as an education trust, is in custody. Saeed noted the roof was poorly constructed. The location—narrow streets in a congested inner-city area—hindered rescue efforts, forcing Pakistan Army personnel and local agencies to work manually through the debris. Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Afaq Wazir confirmed all trapped individuals were eventually pulled from the rubble.
Hospital spokesperson Muhammad Asim said 20 injured children reached LRH. Most left after first aid. Three with severe head injuries remain admitted. An emergency was declared to manage the influx. The scale of the tragedy is stark: 34 dead, 20 injured, all under 13.
Provincial Education Secretary Inayatullah Waseem ordered the managing director of the Private Schools Regulatory Authority to file a report by Friday. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IGP Zulfiqar Hameed directed traffic authorities to establish a green corridor for ambulances. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari expressed grief, directing authorities to provide top-tier medical care to the surviving injured.
This is not an isolated incident. In July, three girls aged 3 to 13 died when a school wall collapsed in Sindh. In June, 14 children died in a Lahore tuition centre roof collapse. Building failures here trace back to substandard materials and ignored safety codes. The current inquiry will determine which specific regulations were violated at Al-Khair School.