The Pakistani government, which last week said gang-rape victim Mukhtaran Mai was free to travel, has taken away her passport, a US official said. “Pakistani officials do have her passport,” said a State Department official who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of US-Pakistani relations. “We’re telling them she needs to be free to travel ... We’re trying to get at the basic issue here.”

Last week the Pakistani government said it had lifted travel restrictions on Mukhtaran Mai, who was gang-raped on the orders of a traditional village council in 2002, following protests from international media and the US government. Mai had demanded the government allow her to travel after a court ordered the release of 12 men connected with her case. The State Department last week called the restrictions “outrageous” following the order to release the men, some of whom were accused of raping her, and it said she was welcome to visit the United States.

Pakistan is a key ally to the United States, which depends on its support in hunting for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and which has rewarded it with economic and military aid. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli declined to say whether the Pakistani government had Mai’s passport but stressed the US demand that she be free to travel. He said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raised the matter with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri last week.

“Rice made it clear ... Mai was welcome to come the United States at any time and that we were looking to the government of Pakistan to ensure that she was free to travel whenever she wanted to the United States and that no obstacles would be placed in her way. And we received those assurances.” he said. President Pervez Musharraf, who has been trying to project Pakistan as a moderate and progressive Muslim nation, has taken a personal interest in the case, saying it was tarnishing the country’s image overseas.

The original trial before an anti-terrorism court in 2002 found that Mai was gang-raped on the orders of a traditional village council after her brother – who was 12 at the time – was judged to have offended the honor of a powerful clan by befriending a woman from their tribe.Six men were originally convicted of the crime and sentenced to death, but five were acquitted after appealing to a regional Punjab court, which cited a lack of evidence. A sixth had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.