More than 200 former Afghan soldiers and police officers have reportedly been tracked down and killed by the Taliban following the leak of personal data belonging to Afghans who worked with British forces, according to a report by a reputed UK newspaper.
The killings began after a document containing the names and details of around 19,000 Afghans affiliated with the UK military mission was leaked online in February 2022. While it remains unclear whether all the victims were on the leaked list, the UK government has not disclosed the identities of those affected.
The report cites Taliban officials confirming that a special unit known as “Yarmok 60” was assigned to locate and detain individuals identified on the list. The unit is believed to have carried out a series of arrests and targeted executions across several provinces.
Victims include Colonel Tor Jan, a former police commander in Helmand province, who was reportedly shot dead outside a mosque in June 2024. A month later, a former Afghan army officer was killed in Khost. Other cases include Muzamil Nejrabi, shot in July 2022 in Kapisa and later dying en route to the hospital, and Hayatullah Nizami, a former police commander whose body was discovered near a Taliban base in Takhar in February 2024 after disappearing the previous night.
Despite Taliban claims of granting amnesty to former security personnel, multiple investigations have contradicted those assurances. A 2021 inquiry by The New York Times documented at least 500 killings or disappearances of former Afghan military and government officials within the first six months of Taliban rule, many of whom were deceived by so-called “amnesty letters.”
Human Rights Watch has also recorded over 100 cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in just four of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, raising further alarm over the scale and coordination of the crackdown.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey acknowledged on Wednesday that the 2022 data leak may have had deadly consequences. The Ministry of Defence attributed the breach to an error by an unnamed employee. In response, the British government has pledged approximately £7 billion to address the fallout, including relocation support for at-risk Afghans.
But for hundreds who were left behind, the protection came too late.
