Acclaimed Chinese photographer Lu Guang has been missing in the northwestern region of Xinjiang for weeks, his wife and a rights group say.
The Germany-based Society for Threatened Peoples said on November 28 that Lu Guang, who resides with his wife in the United States, had been abducted by local police three weeks ago in Xinjiang.
The group said in a statement it was "deeply concerned" about Lu's life, and demanded the immediate release of the three-time World Press Photo award winner.
Lu's wife, Xu Xiaoli, earlier said in online posts that she had been unable to reach her husband since November 3 while he was travelling alone in the city of Kashgar.
Xu told the Associated Press news agency on November 27 that her husband was taken away by state security agents for unknown reasons.
The Society for Threatened Peoples said his abduction was related to the "dramatic deterioration of the human rights situation in Xinjiang."
Investigations by the United Nations revealed in August that an estimated 1 million Muslims from Xinjiang, mainly ethnic Uyghurs, were being held in "counterextremism centers" and millions more had been forced into reeducation camps.
Uyghurs are the largest indigenous community in Xinjiang, followed by Kazakhs, and the region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks and Hui, also known as Dungans.
Han, China's largest ethnicity, are the second-largest community in Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, and Tajikistan.
