Amid citizenship law outcry, Indian authorities' ban on protests continues.

Police banned public gatherings in parts of the Indian capital and other cities for a third day on Friday and cut internet services to try to stop growing protests against a new citizenship law that have so far left eight people dead and more than 1,200 others detained.

Thousands of protesters stood inside and on the steps of New Delhi's Jama Masijd, one of India's largest mosques, after Friday afternoon prayers, waving Indian flags and shouting slogans against the government and the citizenship law, which critics say threatens the secular nature of Indian democracy in favor of a Hindu state.

Police had banned a proposed march from the mosque to an area near India's parliament, and a large number of officers were waiting outside the mosque.

About 2,000 people protested outside New Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia University, which was the site of weekend clashes in which students accused to police of using excessive force that sent dozens to hospitals.

The protests have targeted the new citizenship law, which applies to Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities who are in India illegally but can demonstrate religious persecution in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It does not apply to Muslims.

Read: Pakistan condemns 'regressive, discriminatory' nationality bill

Critics say it's a violation of the country's secular constitution and the latest effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist-led government to marginalise India's 200 million Muslims.

Modi has defended it as a humanitarian gesture.

The protests began last week at predominantly Muslim universities and communities, and have spread across the country and now include a broad section of the Indian public.

A law banning the assembly of more than four people was in place in parts of the Indian capital as well as in several cities in northeastern Assam state and the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where a motorized rickshaw driver was killed during a protest in Lucknow.

A total of eight deaths have been reported so far, including five in Assam and two in southern Karnataka state.

Authorities erected roadblocks and turned areas around mosques in New Delhi, Lucknow and other Muslim-dominated areas into...

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