NEW DELHI: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday condemned a new citizenship law in India as protests over it spread across the South Asian country.

Six more protesters died in India on Friday in fresh clashes between police and demonstrators, taking the death toll to 15 in more than a week of unrest.

The law — which makes it easier for persecuted minorities from three neighbouring countries to gain citizenship, but not if they are Muslim  — has stoked fears Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to remould the world’s biggest democracy India as a Hindu nation, which he denies.

The latest deaths, in northern Uttar Pradesh where almost 20 per cent of the state’s 200-million population are Muslim, followed the loss of three lives on Thursday when police opened fire on protesters in the northern city of Lucknow and the southern city of Mangalore.

Also read: Fresh clashes in India as death toll hits nine

Malaysian PM Mahathir condemns new law

Malaysian PM Mohamad while speaking on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur Summit condemned the new law and questioned the reasoning behind the adoption of it by a country that claims to be secular.