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A whistleblower has revealed the Afghan leak inquiry that the UK abandoned classified technology permitting the Taliban to identify Afghans who worked with western forces.

Data Breach Puts Numerous at Risk

The source, identified as Person A, explained that people concerned by the information breach were told to relocate and change their contact details to protect themselves from militant forces.

Lawmakers are looking into the Conservative government's handling of a serious leak of personal details involving almost nineteen thousand Afghans who had requested to move to Britain to avoid the regime.

The Information Breach Happened

An electronic document with private information, comprising identities, contact details and occasionally family information, was inadvertently disclosed by a staff member working at special operations center in February 2022.

The leak came to light only in August 2023, when identities of nine people who had requested to settle in Britain appeared on Facebook.

Regime's Resources

Many believe there's a misunderstanding that Afghan rulers lack the same sort of facilities that we have,” she told MPs.

All equipment was abandoned in Afghanistan; they possess it. If they have a contact number, they can locate your precise location. That's precisely what the unit did.”

When questioned about if militant forces had access to sophisticated technology, the whistleblower stated: “They possess all resources.”

Consequences of the Information Leak

Early investigations submitted to the inquiry estimated that no fewer than forty-nine family members and associates of Afghans affected by the leak had been killed.

A gag order about the breach was implemented in late 2023 and prevented all details regarding the matter from media reporting until mid-2025.

Protective Actions

Due to legal constraints, the source and the non-governmental organization she collaborated with told individuals at risk they were working with that they had “suspicions that mobile communications had been compromised”.

“We advised that they moved when possible and altered their contact details. These represented the primary information that, if authorities acquired such data, would lead to their location being found,” she said.

Challenged Assessments

The whistleblower disputed that internal investigation performed by a retired civil servant had been wrong to state that the obtaining of the dataset by militant forces was “unlikely to substantially change an individual's existing exposure”.

“The important fact is that these individuals are in hiding from the authorities; they are in hiding. The primary issue involves past work history.”

She detailed disturbing abuse experienced by affected individuals, comprising electrocution, interrogation techniques, and violent assaults.

“We have had four-year-old children who have had bones crushed to try to get relatives to say where someone is,” Person A stated.