Taliban Used Abandoned British Gear to Track Down Afghans Who Worked Alongside Western Forces, Investigation Is Told
A confidential source has revealed a parliamentary probe that the UK failed to secure classified equipment enabling the militant group to track down local individuals who collaborated with allied troops.
Information Leak Puts Thousands in Danger
The whistleblower, known as Person A, testified that individuals impacted by the security lapse were advised to relocate and change their mobile numbers to avoid detection from militant forces.
Members of Parliament are looking into the UK government's handling of a serious leak of confidential data concerning approximately 19k Afghans who had asked to relocate to the United Kingdom to avoid the Taliban.
How the Leak Occurred
A data file containing their personal data, including identities, phone numbers and sometimes relative details, was mistakenly released by an official stationed at UK special forces headquarters in early 2022.
The leak became known in late 2023, when details of several individuals who had applied to settle in the UK appeared on Facebook.
Militant Technology
“There seems to be a false assumption that Afghan rulers are without similar capabilities that allied forces use,” she told MPs.
“We left it all behind in Afghanistan; it's in their hands. If they have mobile details, they are able to track your exact position. That's precisely what intelligence groups accomplished.”
Under inquiry about regarding if authorities owned sophisticated technology, Person A declared: “They've got everything.”
Aftermath of the Data Breach
Initial findings presented to the committee suggested that approximately fifty kin and co-workers of individuals impacted by the breach had been killed.
A gag order about the leak was enacted in last year and restricted any information concerning it from being made public until July 2025.
Security Recommendations
Due to legal constraints, the source and the non-governmental organization she collaborated with informed Afghan families they were assisting that they had “apprehensions that mobile communications had been intercepted”.
“We recommended that they change residence if they could and altered their mobile numbers. Those were the crucial data that, should militant forces obtained such data, would cause identification and capture,” Person A explained.
Challenged Assessments
The source disputed that internal investigation conducted by an ex-government employee had been incorrect to determine that the possession of the dataset by the regime was “minimally impact present danger”.
“The thing to remember is that affected people are not confronting the authorities; they are in hiding. The primary issue involves their previous employment.”
Person A described terrible treatment suffered by at-risk Afghans, involving electric shock torture, simulated drowning, and severe beatings.
“We have had four-year-old children who have had bones crushed to try to get households to reveal locations,” she testified.
