What happened
At least six people — including a mother and her three daughters — were killed and five others injured on Sunday, 4 January 2026 when the dilapidated roof of a house collapsed in Shabqadar tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda district, according to police statements carried by Dawn. Most of the victims were guests who had arrived at the house to attend a wedding ceremony scheduled for that evening, police said.
The collapse occurred around 4 a.m., according to a police statement quoted by Dawn. Neighbours “rushed to the site and managed to pull out the bodies and the injured from the debris” before Rescue 1122 teams arrived and shifted the injured and the deceased to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Shabqadar. As of the time of Dawn’s report, the death toll stood at six and five injured.
Why buildings like this keep failing
Dawn’s report noted that roof collapses in KP are “largely caused by substandard construction, use of poor-quality materials, and lack of enforcement of building codes”. Ageing structures, illegal extensions, and heavy rains further weaken roofs, the report said. In November 2025, a separate roof collapse in the Pabbi area of Nowshera district killed five members of a family, including four children.
What remains open
Identification of all six deceased and confirmation of the cause of the structural failure had not been published on the date of this report. District administration statements on any potential investigation into construction standards in the affected neighbourhood, and the condition of the five injured, are also expected to follow.
