ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: Doctors and religious party leaders have planned a mass protest for Friday against the 10-day detention of a top surgeon over suspected links to Al-Qaeda militants.

Doctor Amir Aziz was picked up by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and Pakistani intelligence agencies from Lahore on Oct 21.

“We are still interrogating him,” Brigadier Javed Cheema, head of the interior ministry’s Crisis Management Cell, told AFP.

Cheema said Aziz, a widely-respected orthopaedic surgeon, would be released once inquiries were complete, but did not indicate when.

Aziz telephoned his mother late Wednesday and told her he was “alright and in good health and would join them soon,” a family member told AFP.

His arrest has sparked outrage from the medical community and other professionals.

Doctors on Friday will suspend work in hospitals nationwide for one hour, while the MMA, will hold demonstrations after Friday prayers, their representatives said.

The MMA’s Riaz Durrani described Aziz as “an asset of Pakistan.”

“He has committed no crimes by treating the injured in Afghanistan,” he said.

“Nobel prizes are awarded to those who provide medicare to dogs, cats and donkeys in the West, while here a doctor who provided health facilities to a human being is victimised and harassed,” said Wali Muhammad Wajid, a doctor protesting at Multan. —AFP