Varanasi: The head of the Telugu Department at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) was injured in an attack by two unidentified assailants on a motorcycle in the university campus, police said on Wednesday.

Following the incident, BHU professors staged a protest, demanding the arrest of the attackers.

“Professor C S Ramchandra Murthy, head of BHU’s Telugu Department, was riding his motorcycle in the university premises when two unknown individuals on a motorbike attacked him. The assailants fled when the students nearby raised an alarm,” said Station House Officer (SHO) of Lanka Rajkumar Sharma.

Professor Murthy’s hand was fractured in the attack.

Sharma said that a case of attempt to murder has been registered against two unidentified individu-als and efforts are underway to identify the attackers.

Protesting professors said that Prof Murthy is due to retire in just six months and expressed outrage over the attack.

The protest was called off late Tuesday evening after the university administration assured the pro-fessors of action within 48 hours, university officials said.

Meanwhile, a court here sentenced a man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a minor girl in 2017.

Additional District Judge (POCSO), Meerut, Mohd Babar Khan on Tuesday held Bhure guilty and sen-tenced him to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him.

A case was registered against Bhure and two juveniles on charges of raping the 16-year-old girl.

The case against juvenile offenders is pending in

the court.