Indian authorities have stepped up security in major cities and mobile data services were suspended in some places amid nationwide protests against a new citizenship law.
The administration of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, banned mobile internet services in many parts of the state on Thursday night, including the provincial capital Lucknow, the state government said.
Some television channels reported that police had imposed emergency law in some parts of the capital, New Delhi, that prohibits gatherings.
Such prohibitions have been in place for more than a week in Uttar Pradesh, which has witnessed the worst crackdown. The state's police force has been accused of killing 19 people there, most of them Muslims.
At least 27 people have been killed in protests across the country since the Citizenship Amendment Act was adopted on December 11. The law is seen as discriminatory towards Muslims, who make up about 14 percent of India's 1.3 billion population.
The legislation makes it easier for people from non-Muslim minorities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who settled in India prior to 2015 to get Indian citizenship.
[Abstract from Original Article Appeared on Al-Jazeera English]
