They called in two "witnesses" to watch them discover two leaflets supporting Hizb-ut-Tahrir. He was forced to inform on four friends, one of whom -- an ex-boxer -- is still in pain from his beating.
Abdulkhalil and Ahatkhon prayed regularly. This seemed to have been enough to brand them as the Islamists the Karimov government fears.
The Ferghana valley has been a base for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which the US and the UK say has links with al-Qaeda. But the group is thought to have been crippled by the operations in Afghanistan. Analysts diss US claims that the IMU is targeting American military assets in the neighboring republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Poverty begets extremism
The fight against the IMU has been used to justify the repression of Islamists. But the Islamic order advocated by Hizb-ut-Tahrir fills a void left by devastating poverty and state brutality.
Craig Murray, the British ambassador to Uzbekistan, said, "The intense repression here combined with the inequality of wealth and absence of reform will create the Islamic fundamentalism that the regime is trying to quash."
Another senior Western official said: "People have less freedom here than under Brezhnev. The irony is that the US Republican party is supporting the remnants of Brezhnevism as part of their fight against Islamic extremism."
`Engagement'
The US is also funding some human-rights groups in Uzbekistan. Last year it gave US$26 million towards democracy programs.
A State Department spokesman said America's policy was "reform through engagement" and that Uzbekistan had "taken some positive steps," including "registering a human-rights group and a new newspaper."
Matilda Bogner of Human Rights Watch's office in Tashkent said: "I would deny there has been any real progress.
Hakimjon Noredinov, 68, agreed. He became a human-rights activist after a morgue attendant brought him his eldest son, Nozemjon. He had been left for dead by the security service but was still alive despite having his skull fractured. Nozemjon is now 33, but screamed all night since they split his skull open. He is now in an asylum, Noredinov said. "People's lives here are no better for US involvement," he said.
"Because of the US help, Karimov is getting richer and stronger."
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