🔗 Share this article Afghan Rulers Employed Abandoned UK Technology to Track Down Local Nationals That Served With Western Forces, Investigation Learns A whistleblower has revealed the Afghan leak inquiry that British authorities failed to secure sensitive equipment allowing the militant group to track down Afghans that had served with international military. Information Leak Endangers Numerous at Risk The whistleblower, called Person A, testified that Afghans affected by the data leak were advised to relocate and alter their contact details to ensure their safety from militant forces. Lawmakers are investigating the Conservative government's handling of a catastrophic leak of personal details concerning approximately 19k individuals who had applied to come to the United Kingdom to flee militant rule. Data Disclosure Occurred A spreadsheet including private information, comprising names, phone numbers and occasionally household data, was mistakenly released by a worker employed at UK special forces headquarters in last year. The incident became known months later, when details of nine people who had applied to settle in the UK were posted on online platforms. Regime's Resources “There seems to be a misunderstanding that militant forces do not have comparable resources that allied forces use,” the whistleblower testified to MPs. Technology was deserted in Afghanistan; it's in their hands. Should they obtain mobile details, they can locate your exact position. This is exactly how intelligence groups did.” When questioned about whether the Taliban possessed advanced decryption, the whistleblower confirmed: “They have complete capability.” Consequences of the Data Breach Early investigations presented to the committee indicated that at least 49 relatives and co-workers of individuals impacted by the leak had been murdered. A superinjunction concerning the incident was put in force in last year and prevented relevant facts regarding the matter from being made public until July 2025. Safety Measures Given injunction limitations, Person A and the aid group associated with told affected households they were working with that they had “concerns that somebody's phone had been breached”. “We recommended that they moved if they could and changed their contact details. Those were the crucial data that, if authorities obtained such data, would result in their location being found,” Person A explained. Challenged Assessments The source contested that an official review performed by a retired civil servant had been wrong to conclude that the obtaining of the dataset by the Taliban was “not significantly alter present danger”. “The thing to remember is that these Afghans are not confronting the Taliban; they live secretly. Everything boils down to their previous employment.” Person A described terrible abuse endured by at-risk Afghans, involving electric shock torture, interrogation techniques, and physical abuse. “There are cases of four-year-old children who have had limbs fractured to force relatives to say where someone is,” she testified.