Peshawar's district administration has distributed relief cheques worth Rs19 million to the parents of children killed when the roof of a private school collapsed in the city last month, in the first major financial support to reach the bereaved families since the disaster.

The Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar visited the affected families, met grieving parents and assured them the administration would continue to support them, according to a report by The Global Times. The relief was provided on the special instructions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi.

Each family that lost a child will receive Rs1 million, the governor announced. Payments to injured children are being prepared separately: the district administration is compiling and verifying final lists of the injured, and the Deputy Commissioner said the money would reach them within a day of verification.

Reports differ on the amount set for injured children. The governor's announcement on 16 October put it at Rs200,000 per injured child, while the district administration's later account quoted Rs300,000. The administration has said its teams are working on the ground to verify every injured child's particulars so that no eligible child is left out.

The collapse struck the privately run Al-Khair Education Centre in Peshawar's Dir Colony area on 15 October 2026, during school hours, while children were attending classes. Thirty-five people were killed, including 34 children and a female teacher, and more than 45 others were injured. Students were trapped under the rubble, and rescue personnel, police, hospital staff and local residents took part in an emergency operation at the scene.

The school's owner was arrested after the incident, and the authorities opened an investigation into the circumstances of the collapse, including possible construction-related negligence. Investigative committees have been set up to establish the cause and identify those responsible, with an inquiry report due within four days.

Governor Kundi has said the investigation will look not only at those directly responsible but also at the officials who issued the school's no-objection certificate. He has also ordered a structural audit of government school buildings across the province to assess their safety for students.

The tragedy has renewed calls for stronger inspections of school buildings and stricter enforcement of safety rules. It followed another roof collapse in June, when more than a dozen children were killed at a tutoring centre in Lahore.

For the families in Dir Colony, the cheques are only a first step. The administration has said the relief effort will continue and that affected families will not be left alone in their grief, while the inquiry into how a school roof could fail during lessons is still under way.