ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has assured the United States of its assistance in helping recover the country’s nationals being held hostage in Afghanistan, including a US navy veteran who was kidnapped last year, but as “a moral duty” and not under coercion, Pakistani media reported on Monday, quoting the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.

Advocates for Americans held hostage overseas have raised concerns that the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan will make it harder to bring home captives from the country. Of particular concern is the case of US Navy veteran and civil engineer Mark Frerichs.

Once American military and special operations personnel have left Afghanistan — which some officials anticipate will happen by July Fourth — experts and Frerichs’ family fear the US will lose most of the leverage it might have to free Frerichs through one of the limited number of tracks the government has already contemplated or acted upon during his 17 months of captivity.

Frerichs, 58, from Lombard, Illinois, was kidnapped in January 2020 in the capital city of Kabul after being lured to a business meeting that was a ruse, ABC News reported last week, saying he is believed to be held by the Taliban’s Haqqani network which has kidnapped other American and British citizens for ransom or prisoner swaps over the course of the two-decade war.

“The options that have been considered for freeing Frerichs include trying to arrange a controversial prisoner exchange involving an Afghan druglord, encouraging Pakistan to influence the captor network, or staging a high-risk rescue operation if Frerichs can be located,” ABC News reported.

Responding to the report, Maliha Shahid, a spokesperson at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, said there was “no evidence” to suggest Frerichs was being held in Pakistan,” adding that Pakistan “remains committed to play any role it can” to reunite Frerichs with his family.

“Pakistan has always regarded any assistance it can provide in helping the United States and other foreign countries with the recovery of their hostages from Afghanistan as a moral and humanitarian responsibility,” Shahid said. “This assistance has always been extended in good faith, and not driven by incentives or pressure.”

An annual report from the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, released this month, examines the status of US government efforts to secure the release of hostages and unlawful detainees in foreign countries. The report’s findings are based on interviews with former hostages and detainees or their representatives and relatives, as well as current and former government and military officials.

Among the concerns raised by hostage advocates interviewed for the report is that once American troops leave Afghanistan — a process the Biden administration has said will be completed by Sept. 11 — “it will become more difficult to generate the intelligence needed to find Americans and conduct rescue operations for current hostages held in the area.”

They include Frerichs, and Paul Overby, an American writer who disappeared in Afghanistan in 2014.

“They also fear that the further reduction of US physical presence in the country is an erosion of the leverage needed to make progress on resolving these cases,” the report states. “It is perceived by some advocates that securing the release of these hostages was not made a precondition for any settlement during the peace talks in Doha, Qatar with the Taliban.”