The alleged rape of a woman at one of the hiking trails of Islamabad’s Margalla Hills has turned out to be false, the federal capital police said on Tuesday.

“The matter turned out to be a fight between the suspect and his partner,” Islamabad police said in a statement. “The identified suspect, Noman, had a quarrel with his colleague Anwar who hired a group to take revenge.”

The development comes after police accused the alleged victim of not cooperating with police and not providing details of the accused. The main accused was arrested on July 16.

On July 14, a woman filed a complaint with Islamabad police saying she was raped at gunpoint at Margalla Hills’ Trail 3. She is a resident of Sheikhupura.

The group included Saima, Dr Sidra Ismail, Shakeel, and Manzoor, police claimed and added that two members were fake journalists were another was a bogus policeman.

Anwar contacted Saima, a Rawalpindi resident, to falsely accuse Noman of rape, police told this scribe. Saima contacted Sheikhupura resident Sidra, who made the allegations, and planned the “rape drama”.

Sidra’s trip with Noman, the accused, to Trial 3 was “part of the plan”. She was about to scream while pretending that she was being raped. Meanwhile, the rest of the group had to reach the spot and make videos. Then the group was supposed to blackmail the accused and his family. They also planned to demand extortion.

The two arrive at the trail, as per the alleged plan, but the group did not make it to the spot. Sidra went back to Rawalpindi with the accused after a long wait.

After that, she lodged a complaint with the police and returned to Sheikhupura. Police claimed that they have investigated the matter from every angle.

When police summoned the alleged victim, she made all the revelations in front of the magistrate. “This is a group that blackmails people by deceiving them. They take extortion from them,” said a police statement.

At least two cases have been registered against Sidra in Sheikhupura and Muridke. Anwarul Haq, an operative of the alleged group, was a suspect in many cases. Police claimed a campaign was launched on social media regarding this case while the case was under investigation.

They urged citizens to not believe in rumours until the final report of police. “Such a campaign could affect the police investigation which would benefit the accused,” it said.

The Islamabad police have accused a woman, who was allegedly raped at one of the hiking trails of the capital’s Margalla Hills, of not cooperating with them in the investigation process.

“The plaintiff is reluctant to cooperate with the police and has not provided details of the accused,” the Islamabad police tweeted on Saturday. “Margalla trails are protected with drone surveillance and effective patrolling.”

The latest revelations are in complete contradiction with the FIR registered at Islamabad’s Kohsar police. The complaint was registered under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code

The complainant claimed that she was raped after the accused promised her to secure a job. The suspect picked her up from the last bus stop of Tench Bhatta and took her to Margalla Hills’ trail 3 from where he then took her to the jungle and raped her at gunpoint around 3pm, said the complaint.

She further stated that the suspect threatened to kill her if she made any noise. “So I remained silent out of fear.” The complaint said the suspect later dropped her at the last bus stop of Tench Bhatta after threatening her again.

The Margalla rape case was a hoax, said Salman Sufi, the head of Prime Minister of Pakistan’s Strategic Reforms.

“Another example of how social media is used to spread fake news & create panic. Many accounts had tweeted about the fake news of alleged rape on Margalla hills,” he tweeted and urged people to be careful in spreading unverified news.