WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. President Joe Biden called for the Taliban to free a U.S. Civil Engineer who was kidnapped two years ago. This engineer is thought to have been the Taliban’s last hostage.

Mark Frerichs is a U.S. Navy veteran of Lombard (Illinois), who spent a decade working in Afghanistan as a development worker. A month before U.S. troop pullout agreement was signed in February 2020, Frerichs was abducted and transferred to Haqani network. This Taliban-run faction is accused of some of most deadly attacks during the conflict.

Monday is his second year of captivity.

Biden stated in a statement that “Theftening American safety or innocent civilians are always unacceptable” and added hostage-taking was an act of cruelty and cowardice.

The Taliban must immediately free Mark in order to be given any consideration for its legitimacy aspirations. This cannot be negotiable.

In August, Biden withdrew U.S. soldiers from Afghanistan. This was a chaotic withdrawal which drew harsh criticism from Republicans as well as his own Democrats. It also drew strong criticism from foreign allies as well as Republicans.

Frerichs family has criticised the U.S. government’s inability to press harder for his release. In a Washington Post opinion article, Charlene Cakora (his sister) made an emotional plea for Biden to release Frerichs. It was entitled “President Biden please return my brother,” and it appeared in the Washington Post.

The United States has raised Frerich’s case in every meeting with the Taliban, the State Department said in a statement. “We call on the Taliban to release  him. In a tweet (NYSE:) Blinken, U.S. Secretary Of State Antony Blinken said that we will keep working for his return.

The Taliban and the U.S. officials met together for the first-ever meeting since October’s pullout. They were in Doha in Qatar which hosted negotiations on Afghanistan, the venue that resulted in the troop withdrawal.

Last week, White House officials announced that the Qatari emir would visit the White House Monday to discuss a wide range of issues including energy security. In Kabul, Qatar is a representation of U.S. interests.

This story was rewritten to remove an extra word from the headline