Patna, May 5 (IANS) Hundreds of people on Tuesday took to streets in Bihar's Gaya district to protest the abduction of a doctor and his wife.

The protesters demanded the state government should ensure the safety of the doctor, Pankaj Gupta, and his wife, police said.

"The protest was to put pressure on the state government to act for safe recovery of Gupta and his wife," Sanket Narayan Singh, one of the protesters, said.

Another protester, Sanjay Gupta, a member of Lions Club, blamed police for negligence in action after the news of the abduction surfaced on May 1.

Pankaj and his wife Subhra were abducted near Barachatti on the Grand Trunk Road in Gaya while returning back from a wedding ceremony in Jharkhand's Giridih district.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar termed the abduction as a challenge for him and said he was himself monitoring the case and has ordered Director General of Police P.K. Thakur to ensure their safe rescue as soon as possible.

"Nitish Kumar has directed concerned police officials to recover the abducted doctor and his wife," an official from the Chief Minister's Office said.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Bihar State Health Service Association have, meanwhile, threatened to paralyse medical services in the state if the doctor and his wife were not traced soon.

Pankaj Gupta is a wellknown medical practitioner in Gaya and belongs to a leading business family of the town.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to find the missing couple. Police suspected the involvement of an inter-state gang in the abduction.

Special probe teams have also been rushed to Ranchi in Jharkhand and Kanpur and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh to get some clues about the incident.

According to the family members and a police official in Gaya, no ransom call has been received by Pankaj Gupta's family so far.