Family of the last American hostage in Afghanistan, Mark Frerichs is desperate and now has asked the US President Joe Biden to fire the US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad. Mark’s loved ones are blaming Khalilzad for not securing the release of Mark who has been in Taliban custody since last year.
"I have lost faith in Ambassador Khalilzad," Charlene Cakora, Frerichs' sister and the family spokesperson, said in a statement to Reuters, accusing him of ignoring her brother’s kidnapping.
"They need someone talking to the Taliban who will make Mark a priority," she continued. "Ambassador Khalilzad needs to be fired.”
Frerichs’ family has been accusing Khalilzad of failing to make his release a priority and of never even asking the Taliban about Mark this month, when a US troop withdrawal deal last year was being signed. Mark was “abducted” in January 2020 in the capital city of Kabul when Khalilzad and the Taliban were finalising the Doha agreement. Later, Mark’s captors turned him over to the Haqqani network, one of the more brutal and powerful groups working under the Taliban.
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Now, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the heir of Haqqani Network is the Interior Minister of Taliban’s government. Haqqani was also part of the Taliban’s Doha team and like other team leaders, he has a good rapport with Khalilzad. According to US officials, Khalilzad never raised the issue of former US navy veteran Mark Ferichs with the Taliban leaders. It was the Taliban negotiators who have suggested various times that they would release Mark Frerichs if the US freed Bashir Noorzai, an Afghan drug lord with ties to the Taliban. Noorazi is serving a life sentence in the US for smuggling $50 million of heroin into the US. But Khalilzad did not prioritise it. It was after Biden’s sudden announcement of the US withdrawal by August 31 that the family approached Khalilzad for Mark’s release. His sister appealed to Biden to consider the Taliban’s offer of making the swap so that her brother can come home. The US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a press conference that efforts to bring Mark Frerichs home were ongoing and “will not stop until Mark comes home.”
The Taliban have asked Khalilzad to follow up with his administration but it is believed that he didn't pay attention.
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After the Taliban's takeover of Kabul and amid US evacuations, the CIA director William J. Burns rushed to Kabul and met with Taliban’s top leader Mullah Baradar and spoke about the swap deal.
After Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, Mark’s family wrote a letter to Sirajuddin Haqqani for evidence whether he was still alive requesting him to provide the latest video that demonstrated his well being.
"My nation and the Taliban have been at war for a long time. I know, when the war is over, prisoners on both sides must have the ability to return home," Cakora, Mark’s sister, told Reuters.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the Biden administration’s efforts to bring Mark is on. “Mark’s safety is extremely important to the United States, and we have made that clear to the Taliban in no uncertain terms,” he said.
But for Mark’s release, the US will have to talk to his abductor, the interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has a bounty of USD 10 million announced by the US. Can Biden release Afghan drug lord Bashir Noorzai by giving him clemency through his presidential power? Noorzai, a Pashtun, is said to retain extensive political influence among the Noorzai tribe in districts around Kandahar where the Taliban movement was founded. He used opium money to raise a Mujahideen band to fight the Russians during the 1980s and at the same time became close to Mullah Omar. As the Taliban rose to power, they allowed Noorzai to continue his drug smuggling business. Bashir Noorzai has close ties with Pakistan's Inter-Intelligence Services (ISI) and the Haqqani network.
