Three British-born Pakistani students were arrested in a terror swoop in the north of England

David Hogg:

THREE Bradford University students were being quizzed last night by police investigating terror attacks abroad.

Police swooped after they were tipped off by a teenager who walked into a London police station last week and gave himself up.

The students, thought to be British-born of Pakistani origin, were said by fellow students to be deeply religious, and police are focusing their investigation on whether the group held radical extremist views.

Terrorist Branch officers and West Yorkshire Police arrested the three men, two aged 18 and one aged 19, on Thursday night at a shared house in Grove Terrace in Bradford city centre, before driving them to central London for questioning.

One of the men was part-way through a forensics course at the university while another one of the suspects studied pharmaceuticals.

The Yorkshire Post understands another three Bradford University students on the periphery of the group were also arrested but they were released without charge last night.

Police had been alerted by an 18-year-old man from East London who handed himself over to officers on February 27 in the capital and was then arrested under the Terrorism Act.

There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that one of the three suspects had bought "specialist equipment" valued at £10,000 from an Internet site.

None of the students has yet been charged but it is thought police are investigating whether they were involved in terrorist offences overseas.

On Thursday night officers raided several rooms in the Trinity Hall residence complex in Laisteridge Lane, near the university campus.

Student Alex Roby, 19, lived in Trinity Hall next door to one of the men taken into custody.

Mr Roby said: "He was about the same age as me and of Middle Eastern origin. He was quite a friendly guy and he used to ask me if I wanted to come and eat with him.

"It seemed like he was trying to fit in. He spoke pretty good English. We got in at 2am on the Friday and there were police in and out for the next couple of days. They were searching through his room and looking at his computer. They took a CD with information on it."

Mr Roby said his neighbour was a Muslim, aged 18, from Wolverhampton.

"He had an Islamic poster on his door," said Mr Roby.

"He stuck up for his religion all the time. He would always defend himself and Allah. He was always praying, five times a day in his room."

Another student who declined to be named said all the suspects had congregated in the man's room in Trinity Hall.

He added: "They were his friends. They were together all the time until two o'clock in his room.

"We used to play computer games together – you would never have thought anything bad would have come from next door.

"He was always keen to talk about his religion. He had a lot of religious items in his room – posters and prayer mats, normal things for a Muslim."

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said four men including the teenager who handed himself in were being held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

She added that the arrests were in connection with an investigation separate to the July terror bombings last July.

The head of corporate communications at Bradford University, Ashar Ehsan, said it was co-operating fully with the police.

"Our first priority is, and always will be, the welfare of our students and we will continue to offer them support at this time," he added.

Universities have been warned by the Government they must do their best to root out extremism on campus while their historic role as bastions of free speech was to be reviewed in the light of the London bomb attacks.

Vice-chancellors were told by Education Secretary Ruth Kelly last year that universities must "identify and confront unacceptable behaviour on their premises and within their community" and inform the police "where there may be concerns about possible criminal acts".

Four men held after terror raid

Police continue to question Bradford students on terror offences