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A whistleblower has disclosed the Afghan leak inquiry that the UK abandoned sensitive equipment permitting Afghanistan's rulers to identify local individuals who collaborated with international military.

Information Leak Puts Numerous in Danger

The whistleblower, identified as Person A, stated that Afghans affected by the security lapse were told to move homes and change their phone numbers to ensure their safety from the ruling authorities.

Members of Parliament are looking into official management of a catastrophic disclosure of private information concerning almost nineteen thousand individuals who had asked to relocate to the United Kingdom to avoid the regime.

The Information Breach Was Discovered

A spreadsheet including private information, such as identities, contact details and sometimes household data, was mistakenly released by a staff member employed at British military command in early 2022.

The breach was discovered months later, when details of multiple applicants who had requested to relocate to the UK surfaced on Facebook.

Regime's Resources

Many believe there's a false assumption that militant forces are without similar capabilities that we have,” the whistleblower testified to MPs.

Technology was deserted in Afghanistan; they have it. Once they acquire your phone number, they can locate your precise location. That is what the unit achieved.”

When questioned about whether the Taliban owned sophisticated technology, the whistleblower declared: “They have complete capability.”

Aftermath of the Security Lapse

Preliminary research presented to the investigation indicated that no fewer than forty-nine kin and co-workers of Afghans affected by the leak had been killed.

A legal restriction concerning the leak was enacted in last year and restricted relevant facts about it from media reporting until July 2025.

Safety Measures

Due to legal constraints, Person A and the volunteer organization she collaborated with advised Afghan families they were supporting that they had “concerns that mobile communications had been intercepted”.

“Our suggestion was that they moved where feasible and altered their phone numbers. That constituted the crucial data that, if the Taliban had access to such data, would result in them being traced,” she said.

Contested Findings

The source argued that an official review carried out by a retired civil servant had been wrong to state that the possession of the dataset by the Taliban was “minimally impact an individual's existing exposure”.

“The crucial point is that these individuals are not confronting militant forces; they live secretly. Everything boils down to their previous employment.”

She detailed terrible violence suffered by affected individuals, involving electrocution, interrogation techniques, and violent assaults.

“Instances include four-year-old children who have had limbs fractured to pressure households to say where someone is,” she testified.