Taliban Utilized Left-Behind British Equipment to Track Down Afghans Who Worked With Western Forces, Investigation Is Told
A whistleblower has told an official investigation that the UK left behind classified devices permitting the Taliban to identify Afghans who collaborated with international military.
Data Breach Puts Numerous at Risk
Person A, known as Person A, stated that individuals impacted by the security lapse were advised to relocate and change their mobile numbers to avoid detection from the Taliban.
Members of Parliament are currently examining the Conservative government's response of a catastrophic leak of personal details concerning approximately 19k Afghans who had asked to relocate to Britain to avoid the regime.
Data Disclosure Occurred
A data file containing confidential details, such as names, contact details and sometimes relative details, was accidentally leaked by a staff member working at British military command in early 2022.
The breach was discovered only in August 2023, when identities of several individuals who had sought to relocate to the UK were posted on Facebook.
Regime's Resources
“There seems to be a false assumption that the Taliban do not have similar capabilities that allied forces use,” she told MPs.
All equipment was abandoned in Afghanistan; they possess it. If they have your phone number, they can locate you down to within metres. That's precisely what intelligence groups did.”
During testimony about regarding if authorities had access to advanced decryption, Person A confirmed: “They possess all resources.”
Impact of the Data Breach
Early investigations provided to the committee indicated that at least 49 relatives and co-workers of people concerned by the leak had been killed.
A gag order about the incident was put in force in last year and blocked all details regarding the matter from being made public until July 2025.
Safety Measures
Due to legal constraints, the source and the aid group she collaborated with told affected households they were supporting that they had “apprehensions that mobile communications had been compromised”.
“We advised that they change residence if they could and switched their contact details. Those were the two main details that, if authorities had access to such data, would lead to them being traced,” Person A explained.
Challenged Assessments
Person A contested that internal investigation performed by a retired civil servant had been wrong to conclude that the possession of the dataset by the regime was “unlikely to substantially change an individual's existing exposure”.
“The crucial point is that these Afghans are not standing up to the Taliban; they live secretly. The primary issue involves past work history.”
Person A described terrible treatment suffered by at-risk Afghans, including electric shock torture, waterboarding, and severe beatings.
“There are cases of toddlers who have had their arms broken to try to get relatives to disclose hiding places,” Person A stated.
