Afghan Rulers Employed Left-Behind British Equipment to Locate Local Nationals Who Worked With Western Forces, Inquiry Hears

A whistleblower has disclosed the Afghan leak inquiry that British authorities left behind classified devices enabling Afghanistan's rulers to identify Afghans who worked with allied troops.

Information Leak Endangers Numerous at Risk

Person A, called Person A, explained that people concerned by the information breach were instructed to relocate and switch their phone numbers to avoid detection from militant forces.

Lawmakers are currently examining the Conservative government's management of a catastrophic leak of confidential data concerning nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to relocate to the United Kingdom to avoid the Taliban.

The Information Breach Was Discovered

A data file including private information, comprising identities, addresses and occasionally family information, was inadvertently disclosed by a staff member stationed at British military command in February 2022.

The incident came to light in late 2023, when details of several individuals who had requested to relocate to the UK surfaced on Facebook.

Taliban Capabilities

It appears there is a misunderstanding that Afghan rulers are without the same sort of facilities that western nations possess,” Person A informed lawmakers.

“We left it all behind in Afghanistan; they possess it. Once they acquire a contact number, they can trace your exact position. That's precisely what the unit did.”

When questioned about if militant forces possessed necessary encryption, Person A confirmed: “They possess all resources.”

Aftermath of the Data Breach

Preliminary research presented to the committee suggested that no fewer than forty-nine family members and colleagues of individuals impacted by the incident had been murdered.

A superinjunction regarding the incident was enacted in August 2023 and blocked any information concerning it from media reporting until July 2025.

Security Recommendations

Due to legal constraints, the source and the non-governmental organization associated with advised individuals at risk they were working with that they had “suspicions that somebody's phone had been breached”.

“We recommended that they relocate when possible and changed their contact details. Those were the two main details that, should militant forces obtained these details, would cause them being traced,” she said.

Contested Findings

The source contested that government assessment conducted by a retired civil servant had been mistaken to conclude that the possession of the information by the Taliban was “unlikely to substantially change present danger”.

“The crucial point is that affected people are not confronting the authorities; they live secretly. Everything boils down to past work history.”

She detailed terrible violence endured by at-risk Afghans, comprising electrocution, interrogation techniques, and severe beatings.

“We have had four-year-old children who have had limbs fractured to try to get households to disclose hiding places,” Person A stated.