The incident in which a cat was found hanging from the staircase of a house in Islamabad turned out to be "fake", Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat said on Tuesday.

       On Sunday, a retired senior bureaucrat, Abdul Qayyum, was arrested by Lohi Bher police after a cat was found hanging inside his house, located in Bahria Town. A man residing in the same locality spotted the animal and informed police.

       The animal was taken to a veterinarian so the cause of its death could be determined.

       A case was registered against the owner of the house for killing the cat under Section 429 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), in response to a complaint lodged by an animal welfare activist, Anila Umair.

       The retired official was released on bail on Monday.

       In a tweet, DC Shafqaat said the "complaint regarding [the] cat incident turned out to be fake after investigation".

       He said the person who had shared the picture of the dead cat had "misguided" authorities, while the owner of the cat also submitted a statement that it died after an accident involving its collar.

       "No torture found. All hype was for nothing," Shafqaat added, saying authorities had apologised to the person arrested.

       Earlier, a police officer told Dawn that during preliminary investigation, the man denied killing the cat and told police that two cats were fighting inside his house and there was a loop of rope around the neck of one of the felines.

       During the fight, the cat with the rope around its neck fell from the stairs which led to it dying by hanging as the rope got stuck in a pipe, he added.