ISLAMABAD: Taliban leaders searched their ranks, including in the much-feared Haqqani network, and on Sunday said they were not holding Mark R. Frerichs, a Navy veteran turned contractor who disappeared in Afghanistan in late January.

“We don’t have any information about the missing American,” Sohail Shaheen, the Taliban’s political spokesman, told AP.

A second Taliban official familiar with the talks with the United States said formally and informally the Taliban have notified US officials they are not holding Frerichs. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated a peace deal with the Taliban signed in February to allow America and Nato countries to withdraw their troops and end decades of war, asked for Frerichs’ release during his meetings this week in Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office.

In a statement on Saturday by the US Embassy in Islamabad, Khalilzad also sought Pakistan’s help in locating Frerichs. He arrived in Islamabad on Friday from Doha before heading to India in his pursuit of a lasting peace in Afghanistan.

He met Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa to also press Pakistan’s assistance in getting the Taliban to agree to reduce violence in Afghanistan, where they have stepped up attacks on Afghan Security Forces but not US or Nato forces, in line with the peace deal.

Pakistan has worked with the US to get a peace deal with the Taliban. While it still has influence with the insurgents, a deep mistrust between the militant movement and Pakistan exists.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2020