The number of named suspects in the investigation into the Peshawar school collapse has risen to four, with police carrying out raids to arrest the school owner’s three alleged partners, who are reported to have fled their homes.
Sources in the investigation team said the three additional suspects named in the case were partners of the school owner in the Dir Colony institution. All three are said to have left their homes and gone into hiding after the tragedy.
Raids are under way to take them into custody, and investigators believe the probe will move forward further once the arrests are made, the sources said.
They also confirmed that terrorism provisions have not been included in the case registered over the collapse, which killed 34 children and one teacher, according to the report.
The development follows the registration of a case against the school’s owners and the builder after a preliminary inquiry blamed weak construction and a fragile roof for the collapse. The owner was arrested last week as the province moved to tighten oversight of private schools.
Police had formed an investigation team and begun forensic examination of the site soon after the building came down earlier this month, triggering outrage across the country and a wave of inspections of private school buildings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Officials have since announced new safety rules for private educational institutions in the province, and district-level inspection committees are being set up to check buildings before they are cleared for use.
Authorities have asked anyone with information on the whereabouts of the absconding suspects to come forward, as the investigation continues.
Earlier: Peshawar School Collapse: FIR Filed Against Owners, Builder
