Protests against a controversial nationality law have escalated in India, amid fears of broad categories of marginalization and harm to the country's cultural identity, and complaints of police repression against protesters.

The students continued their lawless protests after two days of violent confrontations between the police and students of a university in the capital, New Delhi, which constituted a worrying shift in the course of events.

The protests spread to West Bengal last Friday, while leaving six deaths in the east of the country.

The law, passed by parliament last week, allows for the granting of Indian citizenship to irregular migrants holding the nationalities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, provided they are not Muslim and face persecution in their countries.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the new law will protect religious minorities by facilitating their acquisition of Indian citizenship.

But opponents say the law is part of the Moody program to marginalize India's nearly 200 million Muslims.

Indian police in the dock due to the way they counter protests (Reuters)

Official investigation
The wave of new protests comes at a time when the Supreme Court is looking into calls to open a formal investigation into allegations of police violence in two universities in northern India.

In turn, Human Rights Watch called on the police to show restraint, and called for an investigation of the police’s behavior.

"Students have the right to protest ... under no circumstances can violence against students protesting peacefully be justified," Amnesty International Executive Director Avinash Kumar said in a statement.

For his part, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said that millions of Muslims may flee India due to the imposition of curfews in the disputed Kashmir region, and the new nationality law in India, which was considered to have created a refugee crisis.

Khan, during a speech at the International Refugee Forum in Geneva, expressed his concern that the crisis would worsen and develop from a refugee crisis to a conflict between two nuclear-armed states.

"Our country will not be able to absorb more refugees," he added, urging the world to "intervene now."