Own up to mass Muslim detentions, Amnesty tells China

China must come clean about the fate of an estimated one million minority Muslims swept up in a "massive crackdown" in far western region of Xinjiang, Amnesty International said in a new report Monday.

Beijing has ramped up restrictions on Muslim minorities to combat what it calls Islamic extremism and separatist elements in the far western province.

But critics say the drive risks fuelling resentment towards Beijing and further inflaming separatist sentiment.

In a new report, which included testimony from people held in the camps, Amnesty said Beijing had rolled out "an intensifying government campaign of mass internment, intrusive surveillance, political indoctrination and forced cultural assimilation".

Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are punished for violating regulations banning beards and burqas, and for the possession of unauthorised Korans, it added.

Up to a million people are detained in interment camps, a United Nations panel on racial discrimination reported last month, with many interned for offences as minor as making contact with family members outside the country or sharing Islamic holiday greetings on social media.

"Hundreds of thousands of families have been torn apart by this massive crackdown," said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International's East Asia director in a statement.

"They are desperate to know what has happened to their loved ones and it is time the Chinese authorities give them answers."