ISLAMABAD October 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A top Pakistani surgeon arrested for suspected links to Al-Qaeda was believed to have treated Osama bin Laden two years ago, a security official said Tuesday, October 22.

Doctor Amir Aziz, a widely-respected 46-year-old orthopedic surgeon, was picked up after leaving Ghurki Hospital in the eastern city of Lahore Monday by Pakistan’s military intelligence wing ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) and two American agents, police and security officials said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Additional Inspector General of Punjab provincial police, Khalid Latif, said Aziz was taken into custody by U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agents.

“Pakistani police had nothing to do with his arrest,” Latif told AFP.

The security officer said Aziz had been running a chain of clinics where he provided free medical care to “like-minded people.”

“He would never hide his closeness with the Taliban. When the U.S. started bombing in Afghanistan he visited Kabul and Jalalabad and he came back and told everyone how he treated the injured and he was so full of emotion,” the officer said.

“What is confirmed is that he was keeping contact with Taliban and Al-Qaeda remnants and was offering medical as well as financial assistance.”

Aziz had been giving free medical treatment to Al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives and had in the past treated Al-Qaeda chief bin Laden, a senior security officer said.

“He has been visiting Afghanistan frequently and he told his friends in Lahore that he treated Osama bin Laden two years ago,” the officer told AFP, declining to be named.

“The suspicion is that he was keeping in touch with Taliban and Al-Qaeda remnants, offering them medical and financial assistance.”

The government confirmed the surgeon’s arrest but refused to divulge details.

“Such a doctor has been arrested from Lahore. I’m not authorized to say anything else,” Interior Ministry spokesman Nabeel Awam told AFP.

Aziz, the son of a retired army colonel, had built a reputation in Lahore as a brilliant surgeon and philanthropist who supported mujahedeen groups and provided free treatment to hundreds of his patients.

He was openly critical of the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the now-ousted Taliban regime, former patients and friends said.

“He was very popular, to make an appointment with him one had to wait several months because he was in such high demand,” the son of one of his former patients told AFP.

U.S. Embassy officials were unable to confirm the arrest, and Pakistani officials declined to say where Aziz was being held.

Aziz’s colleagues at Ghurki hospital, a 300-bed training hospital that treats 450 outpatients daily, were distressed at his detention.

“What is wrong with setting up hospitals in Afghanistan? He wanted to help the suffering, not to work for Al-Qaeda or the Taliban,” said Ghurki superintendent, Doctor Abar Ilahi Malik.

“It was a complete surprise to take a specialist and a professor at a teaching hospital.

“His colleagues, especially the young doctors, are worried and concerned,” Malik told AFP.

Malik said it was unclear exactly where Aziz was arrested.

“At about 10:30 am his brother came to him (at the hospital) and delivered him a message. Apparently some people were waiting for him at the house, or outside the house.

“Then he came out and told his supervisor he was going.”

Pakistani investigators and up to a dozen U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) intelligence experts have been working together to track down Al-Qaeda escapees from neighboring Afghanistan since early this year.