US president Joe Biden demanded that the Taliban immediately release the 59-year-old civil engineer and contractor and there would be no talks on accepting the group’s legitimacy till this demand was met
File image of Mark Frerichs, a contractor from Illinois, who was kidnapped in January 2020 in the Afghan capital, Kabul. AP
“Threatening the safety of Americans or any innocent civilians is always unacceptable, and hostage-taking is an act of particular cruelty and cowardice,” said President Joe Biden on Sunday as he called on the Taliban to “immediately release” Mark Frerichs, believed to be the last American hostage.
The US president, on the eve of Frerichs’s two years in captivity, said that there would be no consideration of Taliban’s aspirations for legitimacy, till Frerichs is not released.
“This is not negotiable,” the US president said.
Who is Mark Frerichs?
Frerichs, 59, is a civil engineer and contractor from Lombard, Illinois, was kidnapped in January 2020 from Afghanistan’s capital Kabul.
He is believed to be in the custody of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network.
Prior to this, Frerichs served in the US Navy.
According to the US department of state, Frerichs “was helping with construction projects for the benefit of the Afghan people when he was taken captive.”
The Associated Press reported that US intelligence officials had tracked Frerichs’s cell-phone, and raided a village near where he disappeared, approximately a week after his disappearance in Khost Province. Although they rounded up individuals from that village, the raid proved unproductive.
On 10 May, 2020, the FBI offered a $1 million reward for information that helps lead to Frerichs’s release or rescue. In addition, the Rewards for Justice Program offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his location.
Frerichs’s sister, Charlene Cakora, pleaded in an opinion piece on Thursday in The Washington Post for Biden to bring him home.
“The US government either makes this trade or it doesn’t save my brother’s life. Every day we don’t bring Mark home is another day he remains in danger,” Cakora wrote.
She added that her brother was captured by a Taliban affiliate on 31 January, 2020, and that from what his family understands, “his kidnappers misled him by inviting him to a meeting to talk about a project.”
They then “took him against his will to a stronghold near the border with Pakistan and later up into the mountains.”
Biden’s statement
On Sunday, Joe Biden said that his administration was doing all it can to get Frerichs home.
A statement from the US president read, “Two years ago tomorrow, US Navy veteran Mark Frerichs was taken hostage in Afghanistan. A civil engineer, he spent a decade helping the people of Afghanistan. He has done nothing wrong. And yet, for two years the Taliban has held him captive.
“Mark is a native of Illinois. A son. A brother. And his family has now endured two gut-wrenching years — praying for his safety, wondering where and how he is, aching for his return.
“Threatening the safety of Americans or any innocent civilians is always unacceptable, and hostage-taking is an act of particular cruelty and cowardice. The Taliban must immediately release Mark before it can expect any consideration of its aspirations for legitimacy. This is not negotiable.”
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the State Department and other US officials have been engaged in pushing for the release of Frerichs.
“They’ve continued to press the Taliban for his release, continued to raise the status in senior level engagements,” she said.
With inputs from agencies
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