E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.1 Page 80 376. The Special Rapporteur was also informed that two mosques were demolished in Ashgabad in October 2004 in addition to the four demolitions which reportedly took place earlier in the capital. Both mosques were located in Shor -Garadamak in Azatlyk district of northern Ashgabad. Reports indicate that a sign hanging in front of one of the properties indicated that the Azatlyk district police outreach unit would be built to replace this mosque. All six mosques were reportedly destroyed a few days before the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. 377. Two people were allegedly arrested for protesting against the demolition of the mosque near Ashgabad's Customs Clearing House. The names of those detained were unknown and it was not known whether they were still be ing held or whether they were punished for the protest. 378. The Special Rapporteur had further been informed that the authorities continued to retain tight control over all Muslim activity. For instance, it was reported that the main imam for the city of Ashgabad, Hezretguly Khan, was dismissed in September 2004 because "some Wahhabis" had been found in the city. 379. Finally, the 2004 pilgrimage to Mecca, the haj, as in previous years, saw only 188 pilgrims allowed to travel. This number was reportedly far below the reported quota allocated to Turkmenistan by the Saudi authorities. It was reported that at least one person who had been on the haj waiting list for at least 10 years went on this year's haj by paying a bribe in US dollars to somebody else who had been on the waiting list for less than 2 years. 380. The Special Rapporteur was also informed that Turkmenistan had increased the number of religious prisoners of conscience it had jailed by imprisoning two further Jehovah's Witnesses, Atamurat Suvkhanov, aged 18, and Begench Shakhmuradov, aged 26, for refusing on religious grounds to serve in the armed forces. Atamurat Suvkhanov was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment in the north-eastern town of Dashoguz on 17 December 2004, while Begench Shakhmuradov was repor tedly sentenced in the Azatlyk district of the capital Ashgabad to one year's imprisonment on 10 February 2005. It was reported that Mr. Suvkhanov was held in the women's labour camp in the eastern town of Seydi whereas the whereabouts of Mr. Shakhmuradov were unknown. Both men were sentenced under Article 219 of the Criminal Code, which punishes refusal to serve in the armed forces. This brings the total number of known religious prisoners of conscience in the State to five, four of them Jehovah's Witnesses and one Muslim, the 57-year-old former chief mufti, Nasrullah ibn Ibadullah , who was arrested after falling out with President Niyazov and was serving a 22-year sentence on charges that the Government allegedly refused to make public. He had not been freed despite recent reported prisoner amnesties. The two other Jehovah's Witness prisoners, Mansur Masharipov and Vepa Tuvakov, both from Dashoguz, were reportedly sentenced on 28 May and 3 June 2004 on the same grounds and were reportedly held in the Seydi men's labour camp. All these sentences were reportedly issued following the televised announcement by President Saparmurat Niyazov in early 2004 that all imprisoned conscientious objectors should be released. Reports indicated that religious prisoners of c onscience in Turkmenistan had been harshly treated in the past, regularly beaten, threatened with homosexual rape, and in one case allegedly treated with psychotropic drugs. Concerns had been expressed that