Islamabad: Taliban on Monday freed a Navy veteran, Mark Frerich, who was the last remaining American mortgage In AfghanistanIn exchange for Bashir Noorzai, an Afghan tribal leader detained by the US in 2005 medicine charge.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki told reporters that the prisoner exchange took place at Kabul airport in the presence of government officials and a US delegation. “Today Mark Frerich was handed over to America and Haji Bashir was handed over to us,” Muttaki said.
Frérich, 60, was kidnapped in 2020, a year before the group took control of Afghanistan after toppling the previous US-backed Afghan government.
Frerich was working as a civil engineer in Kabul for almost a decade. He was last seen pleading for his release in a video earlier this year. There was no immediate word from the US government or Frerich’s family following his release.
Noorzai, better known as Haji Bashir, was arrested in New York in 2005 and later charged with smuggling millions of dollars worth of heroin into the US. In 2008, he was convicted by a New York court of conspiracy to smuggle US heroin worth more than $50 million.
The Afghan drug lord was considered a close ally and friend of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and reportedly helped finance the first Taliban government in the 1990s.
“In 2001, when the US launched a military operation in Afghanistan, Noorzai, at the request of Mullah Omar, provided the Taliban with hundreds of fighters to fight the then anti-Taliban coalition of Afghan groups,” read a US chargesheet against him .
On her return to Kabul on Monday, Noorzai was felicitated as a hero, garlanded by Taliban fighters. “My release, along with that of an American, will make peace between the countries,” Noorzai told a correspondent with Foreign Minister Muttaki and the Taliban’s acting deputy prime ministers.
Muttaki said the swap was the result of long talks between Kabul and Washington. “The development has opened a new chapter in the relationship between Afghanistan and the US and will help resolve bilateral problems through dialogue,” he said.
However, critics felt it was too early to conclude whether this exchange would lead to any change in US dealings with the Taliban, given that the Islamist group had long denied that it was behind Frerich’s kidnapping. .
In addition, tensions continue between the Taliban and the international community over human rights, including restrictive attitudes towards education and work for women, as well as harassment of critics, activists and journalists.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki told reporters that the prisoner exchange took place at Kabul airport in the presence of government officials and a US delegation. “Today Mark Frerich was handed over to America and Haji Bashir was handed over to us,” Muttaki said.
Frérich, 60, was kidnapped in 2020, a year before the group took control of Afghanistan after toppling the previous US-backed Afghan government.
Frerich was working as a civil engineer in Kabul for almost a decade. He was last seen pleading for his release in a video earlier this year. There was no immediate word from the US government or Frerich’s family following his release.
Noorzai, better known as Haji Bashir, was arrested in New York in 2005 and later charged with smuggling millions of dollars worth of heroin into the US. In 2008, he was convicted by a New York court of conspiracy to smuggle US heroin worth more than $50 million.
The Afghan drug lord was considered a close ally and friend of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and reportedly helped finance the first Taliban government in the 1990s.
“In 2001, when the US launched a military operation in Afghanistan, Noorzai, at the request of Mullah Omar, provided the Taliban with hundreds of fighters to fight the then anti-Taliban coalition of Afghan groups,” read a US chargesheet against him .
On her return to Kabul on Monday, Noorzai was felicitated as a hero, garlanded by Taliban fighters. “My release, along with that of an American, will make peace between the countries,” Noorzai told a correspondent with Foreign Minister Muttaki and the Taliban’s acting deputy prime ministers.
Muttaki said the swap was the result of long talks between Kabul and Washington. “The development has opened a new chapter in the relationship between Afghanistan and the US and will help resolve bilateral problems through dialogue,” he said.
However, critics felt it was too early to conclude whether this exchange would lead to any change in US dealings with the Taliban, given that the Islamist group had long denied that it was behind Frerich’s kidnapping. .
In addition, tensions continue between the Taliban and the international community over human rights, including restrictive attitudes towards education and work for women, as well as harassment of critics, activists and journalists.