China detains Uighurs for growing beards or visiting foreign websites, leak reveals

Database known as the 'Karakax list' shows people sent to internment camps for reasons such as 'minor religious infection'

Growing a beard, wearing a veil or accidentally visiting a foreign website were among the justifications for sending Uighurs to China's notorious detention camps, according to a leaked database, casting doubt on Beijing's claim to be conducting a re-education campaign to root out extremism.

The newly revealed database - known as the "Karakax list" after the county where it was compiled - comprises 137 pages and exposes in detail the main reasons for the detention of more than 300 people on the edge of Xinjiang's Taklamakan desert.