Several students from Universiti Malaya have claimed that they were manhandled by the university's auxiliary police when they attempted to hold a speaker's corner session on the campus yesterday evening.

Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) president Ho Chi Yang lodged a police report on this matter, identifying himself as one of the five students holding a speaker's corner session at 5.30pm on campus yesterday.

When Tan Jia You, the third speaker, gave his speech, the auxiliary police approached them to stop their speeches, Ho related in his police report.

"They did not allow us to use the hailer and said that they were doing so based on orders from above.

"While we were negotiating with them, one of the auxiliary police used his arms to grab the two of us, that is myself and Tan.

"We immediately asked them if they could do so. Our other friends also asked what wrong have we done," he said.

The police had insisted they were not allowed to use the hailer, he added.

After they negotiated with the police, the students agreed to stop speaking and the police left.

However, Ho said he lodged the police report because he was dissatisfied with the actions of the auxiliary police during the incident.

After lodging the report, he also condemned such barbaric conduct, saying that auxiliary police should protect students.

Instead, they have become tools to limit the students' freedom of speech, he said.

“Freedom of speech is our constitutional right. The police shouldn’t arrest us arbitrarily, let alone auxiliary police. This is abuse of power," he said.

Ho added that they will try to meet UM authorities, to seek their explanation over the incident.