A/HRC/7/10/Add.2 page 10 23. Some issues of concern were indicated to the Special Rapporteur, however, especially with regard to places of worship. Article 14 of the Religion and Religious Organizations Act stipulates that grand mosques are set up in districts or towns with populations of no less than 15,000 people. The draft law on freedom of conscience and religious association would require 20,000 people in the rural area, 30,000 people in towns (excluding the city of Dushanbe) and 50,000 people in the city of Dushanbe in order to form a grand mosque. According to the draft law, the formation of a local mosque would require 200 to 2,000 people and further mosques would only be allowed if the population in a settlement exceeds 2,000. Concerns have been raised that, if a mosque has already been established and is visited by believers, its closure would interfere with the right to freedom of religion. 24. Allegations of the destruction of mosques in the Frunze district and closures of mosques in the Jabarasul district have already been the object of communications sent by the Special Rapporteur (A/58/296, para. 92). After the Special Rapporteur’s visit, she received reports that a representative of the Dushanbe city prosecutor’s office had subsequently announced that 13 of the 148 unregistered mosques in Dushanbe would be demolished, another 28 would be allowed to operate after registering with authorities and the rest would be closed down. The city authorities in Dushanbe created a commission that ran checks on the city’s mosques both for their legal status and to establish whether the buildings met planning and public health requirements. 25. With regard to pilgrimages, the authorities informed the Special Rapporteur that there was no national quota on the maximum numbers of pilgrims and that anybody who wanted to do so and had enough money could go on hajj. According to the local authorities, a total of 10,000 inhabitants of Isfara have participated in the hajj since 1995. Muslim representatives also confirmed that there used to be a shortage of available hajj places during the early years after independence but that this issue no longer posed a problem. Other reports indicated a steady decrease in pilgrims in absolute numbers for the whole of Tajikistan: from approximately 5,000 (in 2004), to 4,072 (in 2005) and to 3,450 individuals (in 2006). 26. Both religious and secular schools require approval by the Ministry of Education. Such a licence for schools and vocational schools is valid for five years, after which another application is necessary. The revocation of licences is also possible before the end of the five-year period, for example, after a school inspection. In Tajikistan, there are currently nine intermediate madrassas and one Islamic university; specialists are either instructed there or study abroad. However, there also have been reports of graduates of the Islamic university in Dushanbe encountering problems in having their diplomas recognized and consequently in finding jobs. 27. Current legislation also provides that children under 18 years cannot attend mosques for Friday prayers because they have to attend school at that time. The Special Rapporteur has received reports that, just after her visit, the local authorities in Dushanbe decided to send police into a number of mosques to look for children who should have been at school. One such police raid, at Dushanbe’s main mosque on 16 March 2007, allegedly ended in scuffles as members of the congregation tried to stop police from taking away children who had come to attend the midday Friday prayers. Eventually, the children managed to break free and the crowd turned into an impromptu demonstration.