KARAK - Three students of a religious seminary died and fifteen others seriously injured when roof of the main hall of a mosque collapsed due to rain early in the morning on Sunday.

Local people and students of Siraj-ul-Uloom, a religious seminary, informed this scribe that soon after Fajr prayers, the students started reciting the Holy Quran. After some time they took tea break and some of the students went out of the main hall of the mosque and some remained inside when it all of sudden caved in due to rain which buried the students present in the hall under the debris. Soon after the incident, the local people announced on loudspeakers in different areas for help and news of the incident spread like jungle fire in the surrounding areas.

Large number of people reached the spot in very short time from nook and corner of the district and started rescue activities with heavy machinery including tractors and excavators to recover the buried students and after several hours’ hectic struggle they took out eighteen students out of the rubbles. They were immediately rushed to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, Karak for treatment where the doctors pronounced three students identified as Shams-ul-Haq, son of Maulana Sirajuddin, organiser of the seminary, Muhammad Nasir, son of Yaqoob Khan and Muhammad Ayaz, son of Ameen Shah, residents of the same locality, as dead before getting any medical treatment.

The other fifteen injured students were identified as Muhammad Hassan, son of Inam Shah, Bakht Ali, son of Akbar Jan, Muhammad Junaid, son of Noor Saeed Shah, Allah Noor, son of Noor Wali Khan, Shakirullah, son of Dildar Khan, Mudasar Khan, son of Inam Khan, Muhammad Ameen, son of Said Nawaz, Noor Ali, son of Ahmad Ali, Raziullah, son of Nabi Gul, Ikhtiarullah, son of Said Alam, Noor Habib, son of Gul Habib, Shah Zaman, son of Akbar Zaman, Tufail Mahmood, son of Hazratullah and Hafiz Gul Kareem, son of Abdul Kareem.

The doctors said conditions of four of the injured students were serious. Bakht Ali and Muhammad Janaid were therefore referred to a hospital in Peshawar in very precarious conditions and the other two were admitted in the hospital.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Karak Abid Khan Wazir expressed deep sorrow over the incident and directed the hospital authorities to provide all possible medical help to the injured students. He ordered an enquiry into the incident as well and expressed sympathies with the affected families.