QUETTA: Doctors in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Thursday announced a strike at all private and government hospitals for an indefinite period in protest of the abduction of senior surgeon Dr Din Muhammad Bangulzai.

On the call of the Balochistan chapter of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), doctors boycotted OPDs of all major hospitals in the province here on Thursday — the fourth day of the senior surgeon’s kidnapping. The hospitals included Sandeman Civil Hospital, Bolan Medical College (BMC) Hospital, Shaikh Zaid Hospital and Benazir Shaheed Hospital, where OPDs were suspended for three hours.

Meanwhile, emergency centers and operation theaters remained open Thursday. The protesting doctors demanded for the early recovery of the abducted doctor.

However, the PMA announced that a province-wide strike at all private and public hospitals would be carried out from Friday in protest of the abduction.

The PMA added that the protest would continue throughout the province as long as the kidnapped doctor is not recovered.