STUDENTS who staged a spontaneous peace protest at an armed forces recruitment stand at their university were threatened with arrest yesterday.

The students say they were intimidated by military recruiters, university staff and security guards who called the police.
One protester was told: “Go back to Greece.”

The Royal Navy, navy reserves and Royal Air Force were running a recruitment stand at the University of Bradford’s annual spring careers fair.

Protester and biomedical science student Beth Davies said: “This was just a group of students. We saw what was going on and decided something should be done about it.

“The military called security and security threatened to call the police.

“Nobody was arrested because we left before the police arrived.”

The protesters said one foreign student’s identification card was confiscated by security guards, leaving him unable to attend lectures and facing possible exclusion from exams.

First-year integrated sciences student Mohammed Akhtar, 25, said: “I no longer feel safe and I have completely lost my sense of security in the university due to being lied to and intimidated. I feel threatened.”

The protesters said in a statement: “The University of Bradford’s actions against dissent and peaceful student demonstrations raise questions regarding its commitment to promoting social engagement, debate, and democratic participation.

“In a university with an internationally acclaimed peace studies department, which it heavily depends on for recruiting students, this is particularly alarming.”

Bradford University was unable to make an immediate comment.