Students of Sanskrit Vidya Dharam Vigyan (SVDV) faculty at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) have resumed their protest against the appointment of a Muslim assistant professor in the faculty.

The students said that they were resuming their agitation because they were not satisfied with the reply submitted by the university authorities in response to their queries.

"We have resumed the agitation as the 10-day deadline for authorities to reply to our queries has ended," said Shashikant Mishra, one of the students leading the agitation.

The students, who are opposing the appointment of Dr Feroz Khan in the faculty, had called off their 16-day long sit-in after handing over a memorandum to chief proctor O P Rai on 22 November. They had said that they would resume the agitation if they did not get a satisfactory reply

The officials said they had handed over the reply to students three to four days ago and hence there was no need to resume the protest.

"The administration responded to some of our queries but their reply lacked clarity and was not accompanied by documentary proof. As we are not satisfied with the reply, we have decided to go on dharna again," said Shashikant Mishra.

He said the sit-in and boycott of classes would continue till the issues raised by them were addressed. The students submitted another memorandum to the dean on Monday claiming that the reply to their queries by the head of Sahitya department was not complete and clear.

Head of SVDV's Sahitya department Prof Umakant Chaturvedi said he had replied to only those queries which he considered fit and proper.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)