Police arrest suspect behind rape at Islamabad’s Margalla hill hiking trail 

Islamabad police have on Sunday arrested the suspect involved in the alleged rape of a woman that took place on trail 3 of the capital’s Margalla Hills.

Last week Friday, the Islamabad police registered a first information report (FIR) after a woman complained that a man had lured her with a job prospect before raping her at gunpoint on Thursday afternoon. 

According to the FIR, the complainant had been looking for a job and received a message via WhatsApp from a person around two months ago, Dawn reports.

“He told me he was an accountant in the education department, where some vacancies were available,” the victim is quoted as saying in the FIR. In return for a job, the man asked for Rs50,000. 

After some correspondence, where the victim met the suspect and provided him with her curriculum vitae and Rs30,000, saying she would pay the remaining 20,000 once she received a written order of employment.

Under the guise of picking up the victim for a job interview, the suspect drove her to Margalla Hills’ trail 3, where the victim said she was taken to the jungle and raped at gunpoint around 3pm. 

In a statement issued on Sunday, the Islamabad Police said it was successful in arresting the suspect after a three-day effort, adding that they arrested the man on ‘technical bases’, claiming the victim was not assisting the police in the investigation. 

Moreover, they said that the investigation is taking place ‘on merit’, citing the victim’s medical report in which apparently no evidence of abuse was found. 

Furthermore, the statement reveals the complainant and the accused knew each other. However, Islamabad Police asserted that all aspects of the case will be investigated.