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A whistleblower has disclosed the Afghan leak inquiry that the UK abandoned classified equipment enabling the militant group to identify local individuals who collaborated with allied troops.

Data Breach Puts Numerous in Danger

The source, identified as Person A, testified that people concerned by the information breach were advised to relocate and change their phone numbers to avoid detection from militant forces.

Lawmakers are investigating the UK government's management of a serious leak of confidential data involving almost nineteen thousand individuals who had asked to come to the UK to escape militant rule.

Data Disclosure Was Discovered

An electronic document containing confidential details, including identities, addresses and sometimes family information, was accidentally leaked by a worker employed at special operations center in February 2022.

The breach came to light only in August 2023, when identities of nine people who had requested to settle in the UK surfaced on social media.

Taliban Capabilities

“There seems to be a misunderstanding that Afghan rulers are without the same sort of facilities that we have,” Person A informed MPs.

Technology was deserted in Afghanistan; they have it. Should they obtain your phone number, they can trace your precise location. That's precisely what specialized teams accomplished.”

When questioned about if militant forces possessed advanced decryption, the whistleblower confirmed: “They've got everything.”

Impact of the Security Lapse

Initial findings submitted to the committee indicated that no fewer than forty-nine kin and colleagues of individuals impacted by the breach had been executed.

A superinjunction about the incident was put in force in late 2023 and restricted all details about it from public disclosure until July 2025.

Safety Measures

Because she was restricted, the source and the aid group she was working with advised affected households they were working with that they had “suspicions that mobile communications had been compromised”.

“We recommended that they moved when possible and switched their mobile numbers. That constituted the primary information that, should militant forces had access to these details, would result in them being traced,” she said.

Contested Findings

The source disputed that internal investigation conducted by a retired civil servant had been wrong to state that the possession of the records by the regime was “unlikely to substantially change current risk levels”.

“The crucial point is that these individuals are not confronting the Taliban; they are in hiding. All concerns relate to their previous employment.”

Person A described terrible abuse experienced by affected individuals, including electrocution, waterboarding, and severe beatings.

“Instances include four-year-old children who have had their arms broken to try to get the family to reveal locations,” Person A stated.