Afghan Rulers Used Discarded UK Gear to Locate Afghans Who Worked Alongside Allied Troops, Investigation Learns

An informant has disclosed a parliamentary probe that British authorities left behind confidential devices permitting the militant group to track down local individuals that had served with allied troops.

Information Leak Puts Thousands in Danger

The source, known as Person A, explained that Afghans affected by the security lapse were told to relocate and alter their contact details to avoid detection from the Taliban.

MPs are looking into the UK government's response of a serious leak of private information affecting almost nineteen thousand individuals who had requested to move to the United Kingdom to flee militant rule.

How the Leak Occurred

An electronic document containing confidential details, comprising names, addresses and sometimes household data, was mistakenly released by an official stationed at UK special forces headquarters in last year.

The breach was discovered months later, when identities of several individuals who had applied to move to the UK appeared on online platforms.

Militant Technology

It appears there is a false assumption that militant forces are without comparable resources that we have,” the whistleblower testified to MPs.

Technology was deserted in Afghanistan; they have it. Once they acquire a contact number, they can locate you down to within metres. This is exactly how intelligence groups accomplished.”

During testimony about whether the Taliban possessed necessary encryption, Person A confirmed: “They have complete capability.”

Aftermath of the Information Leak

Preliminary research provided to the investigation indicated that at least 49 relatives and associates of people concerned by the incident had been executed.

A legal restriction concerning the incident was put in force in August 2023 and prevented any information regarding the matter from being made public until July 2025.

Security Recommendations

Due to legal constraints, Person A and the aid group she was working with informed Afghan families they were supporting that they had “apprehensions that certain devices had been intercepted”.

“We recommended that they change residence if they could and switched their phone numbers. Those were the crucial data that, if authorities acquired such data, would result in their location being found,” Person A explained.

Challenged Assessments

The source disputed that government assessment conducted by a retired civil servant had been mistaken to conclude that the obtaining of the dataset by militant forces was “minimally impact current risk levels”.

“The thing to remember is that these individuals are not confronting the Taliban; they live secretly. The primary issue involves former occupations.”

Person A described terrible violence suffered by affected individuals, comprising electrocution, simulated drowning, and physical abuse.

“There are cases of young kids who have had their arms broken to pressure the family to reveal locations,” the whistleblower revealed.