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A whistleblower has disclosed the Afghan leak inquiry that British authorities left behind sensitive technology allowing the militant group to locate Afghans that had served with western forces.

Information Leak Puts Numerous in Danger

The source, called Person A, explained that Afghans affected by the data leak were advised to relocate and change their mobile numbers to protect themselves from the Taliban.

Members of Parliament are investigating the Conservative government's handling of a catastrophic breach of private information concerning almost nineteen thousand individuals who had requested to move to Britain to avoid the Taliban.

The Information Breach Happened

An electronic document with their personal data, including names, phone numbers and sometimes household data, was accidentally leaked by a worker stationed at British military command in February 2022.

The leak became known only in August 2023, when details of nine people who had requested to move to the UK surfaced on social media.

Taliban Capabilities

“There seems to be a false assumption that the Taliban lack the same sort of facilities that western nations possess,” Person A informed lawmakers.

All equipment was abandoned in Afghanistan; they possess it. Once they acquire mobile details, they can locate your exact position. That's precisely what intelligence groups accomplished.”

Under inquiry about whether the Taliban possessed advanced decryption, the whistleblower confirmed: “They possess all resources.”

Aftermath of the Data Breach

Early investigations presented to the inquiry suggested that approximately fifty kin and colleagues of individuals impacted by the breach had been murdered.

A superinjunction regarding the leak was implemented in last year and blocked all details concerning it from media reporting until July 2025.

Safety Measures

Given injunction limitations, the whistleblower and the aid group associated with informed Afghan families they were assisting that they had “apprehensions that certain devices had been intercepted”.

“We recommended that they relocate when possible and altered their contact details. Those were the primary information that, should militant forces obtained such data, would lead to their location being found,” she said.

Contested Findings

Person A contested that government assessment carried out by a retired civil servant had been mistaken to state that the possession of the records by the Taliban was “unlikely to substantially change present danger”.

“The important fact is that these individuals are in hiding from the Taliban; they are in hiding. Everything boils down to former occupations.”

She detailed terrible violence experienced by affected individuals, comprising electric shock torture, simulated drowning, and violent assaults.

“There are cases of toddlers who have had bones crushed to force relatives to say where someone is,” she testified.