MUZAFFARGARH: Two students were killed on Monday while as many others suffered injuries in a pillar collapse at Malik Araien government primary school, Alipur tehsil near Seetpur, some 60 kilometres away from city area.

The deceased have been identiñed as sevenyear-old Muhammad Kaleem, son of Allah Dewaya and girl Nisha of Class Prep while the injured are Mamoona (class-I) and Kousar Bibi.

An education official said school headmaster Mohammad Younis had installed swings to attract more enrollments some days back.

He said [it seemed] the pillars on which the swing had been fixed, were constructed without laying foundation. He said the faulty construction resulted in collapse of the pillar.

Deputy Commissioner Engineer Amjad ShoaibTareen visited the spot and formed a team to probe the matter within a day. He said stern action would be taken against irresponsible officials.

The bodies were handed over to the families and the injured students were shifted to hospital for treatment.

The bereaved families held the school teachers responsible for the incident while no official checked the quality of work.

Dawn has learnt that a number of schools` buildings have developed cracks and the respective department seems to be leastinterestedinrepair.

The newly-built building of government girls high school, Nawan Budh, has developed cracks while no monitoring team checked it.

Executive officer (education) Malik Masood Nadeem also visited the spot and met with the bereaved families, assuring them of stern action against the headmaster and staff.