SHADOW foreign office minister Khalid Mahmood today condemned “sickening violence” in India, where more than 40 people, largely Muslims, have been killed in mob attacks on homes and mosques.

A new law has been criticised for further marginalising the country’s 200 million Muslims by offering Indian citizenship to migrants from neighbouring countries providing they are not Muslim.

The legislation has increased tensions between Hindu hardliners and Muslims protesting at the Hindu chauvinist policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Mr Mahmood accused India of behaving “like a state with no regard for human rights and the rule of law or the freedom of religion,” adding that it must “face the consequences of its behaviour.”

He told MPs: “Next will come a national register of citizens. Undocumented Muslim migrants will automatically be excluded, held in concentration camps and identified for deportation.

“Through these laws, Prime Minister Modi is turning a hateful nationalistic slogan into brutality.”

Foreign Office Minister Nigel Adams said Mr Modi’s government “needs to act within all domestic laws and international laws to make sure they are enforced.”

He claimed that the government is “constantly talking” to the Indian officials about its concerns regarding the new citizenship law.