LAHORE, Aug 7: A 13-year-old girl sits awkwardly trying to recapture the moments of violence against her body and soul. Her soft looks enhance the vulnerability of her tender age making you wonder how easy it is for some to violate innocence, without remorse.

The girl was raped in her courtyard in April and is now trying to get back to normalcy with the help of Dastak, a place of shelter for victims of domestic violence and rape.

It was some time in April, the 13-year-old cannot recall the exact date of the incident, when her neighbour jumped over a wall and raped her in the dead of the night.

"Miss ji, my father and mother were sleeping inside the one room we have, and Miss ji, I was sleeping outside in the courtyard with my younger sisters. Miss ji, he came, took me to one side of the courtyard, held a gun to my head and said he would kill me if I screamed. Miss ji, he covered my mouth with a cloth and... Miss ji he did it," utters the girl quickly, desperately trying to overcome embarrassment.

Police refused to lodge an FIR, even though all signs indicated that rape had taken place. The girl's excessive bleeding, her physical condition, the footprints of the accused and the rest pointed to the girl's violation, police along with the accused claimed that it was done through "mutual consent".

With eight daughters and a small son, the 13-year-old's father could not afford to get involved in expensive legal battles. His most natural recourse was to turn to police for justice. It turned out to be a less than wise recourse because the rape victim's father had forgotten that the door to justice was not open to all.

It was only after a rights activist intervened and advised the girl's father to take her to Dastak in Lahore, that an FIR was finally lodged. The case is now being handled by an advocate at the AGHS, and the girl's father has gone back to Toba Tek Singh because he cannot afford to commute between the two places.

But life for that 13-year-old has changed -- for the worse. She feels insecure and cannot face unknown men. According to Ms Naima Hassan, a psychologist working at Dastak, the girl repeatedly asks questions about herself.

"It is so painful when she asks me if her body has changed. She thinks that something has gone terribly wrong with her and she can never be the same. When I first met her, it was difficult for her to talk. Now with regular therapy she is able to communicate a little bit," says Ms Hassan.

A report compiled by the Human Rights Watch, an international non-government organization, says "one woman in Pakistan is raped every two hours while up to 90 per cent of women suffer from some form of domestic violence". Falling within the fold of that unfortunate statistic is this 13-year-old rape victim, who might become just another statistical number to figure in the annual reports of leading government and nongovernmental organizations.

Statistics drawn from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (understandably dismissed by police) indicate that Punjab alone has a much higher crime rate with regard to its population. The recorded crime rate is almost 70 per cent of the national total, which is much higher than its share of the population, records the HRCP's annual report.

That is just one of the many instances of insecurity, police's negligence and general disorder at the grassroots level. And yet the provincial law minister, Muhammad Basharat Raja, holds that these instances take place only in a particular social setup.

"These incidents are more to be found in the rural than urban areas and rape is not specific to Punjab only. According to my information, the crime rate has gone down considerably since this government took over. For the past one and half years, we've established a Provincial Monitoring Cell and the Provincial Crisis Management Cell. Both these cells monitor instances of crime on a daily basis. But let me tell you one thing, we are doing everything we can to improve the police's performance. Soon you'll see the difference," states Mr Raja.

Till that difference is noticed, the not-so-privileged people will have to make do with the help provided to them by the NGOs. The official transcript of a difference varies from the non-official one.