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A confidential source has told an official investigation that the UK left behind confidential devices permitting the Taliban to identify local individuals who worked with western forces.

Data Breach Endangers Numerous at Risk

Person A, known as Person A, testified that Afghans affected by the data leak were instructed to move homes and alter their contact details to ensure their safety from militant forces.

Members of Parliament are currently examining official handling of a massive disclosure of confidential data affecting nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to relocate to the United Kingdom to escape the regime.

The Information Breach Happened

A data file including private information, including identities, contact details and occasionally family information, was mistakenly released by an official working at UK special forces headquarters in February 2022.

The incident became known only in August 2023, when the names of multiple applicants who had requested to relocate to the UK appeared on online platforms.

Taliban Capabilities

It appears there is a false assumption that militant forces do not have similar capabilities that we have,” Person A informed the committee.

“We left it all behind in Afghanistan; they possess it. Once they acquire a contact number, they can trace your precise location. That is what specialized teams did.”

During testimony about if militant forces owned advanced decryption, the source confirmed: “They have complete capability.”

Aftermath of the Information Leak

Preliminary research presented to the inquiry indicated that approximately fifty relatives and colleagues of people concerned by the leak had been murdered.

A legal restriction about the leak was implemented in late 2023 and blocked all details concerning it from being made public until July 2025.

Security Recommendations

Due to legal constraints, Person A and the non-governmental organization she was working with advised Afghan families they were supporting that they had “concerns that mobile communications had been breached”.

“Our suggestion was that they relocate if they could and changed their contact details. Those were the crucial data that, if the Taliban had access to such data, would lead to identification and capture,” Person A explained.

Contested Findings

Person A disputed that government assessment conducted by a retired civil servant had been wrong to determine that the obtaining of the dataset by the Taliban was “not significantly alter current risk levels”.

“The thing to remember is that these individuals are not confronting militant forces; they live secretly. Everything boils down to former occupations.”

Person A described disturbing treatment suffered by affected individuals, involving electrocution, interrogation techniques, and severe beatings.

“There are cases of toddlers who have had limbs fractured to pressure relatives to disclose hiding places,” she testified.