Loyal Afghan commando who helped recover British hero's body is tortured amid mounting Taliban revenge attacks after UK data breach disaster - as top MOD figure prepares to quit

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

An Afghan hero who risked enemy fire carrying the body of a British special forces soldier down a mountain alongside the now-Veterans Minister Al Carns has been attacked and tortured while fleeing from the Taliban.
It comes amid further horrific executions this week of Afghans who worked with British forces, as the 'revenge of the Taliban' steps up pace since it was revealed the Government had lost a database and put 100,000 people 'at risk of death'.
Ministers obtained a super-injunction to hush-up the blunder for two years.
Ahmad was an Afghan soldier who worked with the SAS and SBS. He is in hiding in Iran where he and his family fled from Taliban revenge squads. He faces deportation back to Afghanistan where, he says, 'certain punishment, likely execution' awaits.
Yet in the past few days, while waiting to hear if he can relocate to safety in the UK as a reward for his loyalty fighting with British forces, he has been tortured by thugs linked to the Taliban who broke and cut the fingers on his right hand. The Daily Mail has seen gruesome photos, which are too shocking to publish, of Ahmad's injuries.
The 34-year-old married father served with Afghan commandos 'the Triples' – who were trained and paid by UK forces - for nearly a decade.
He was part of a brave detachment of British and Afghan special forces who stormed the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul and helped free Western hostages in 2018.
And in 2013, Ahmad was on an operation with UK Special Forces in which two members of the elite British commandos the SBS were shot. He helped carry the body of one of them down a mountain, determined to ensure he was returned to his family. Alongside him was Al Carns, their commanding officer at the time, one of Britain's most distinguished special forces soldiers - and who is now an MP and the Veterans' Minister.
The commanding officer that night was Al Carns, one of Britain's most distinguished special forces soldiers and who is now an MP and the Veterans' Minister.
Ahmad, which is not his real name, said: 'My life and that of my family are in great danger. I would appeal to the minister to help me, he knows what happened, and of our bravery beside the British – because of that work, I will never be safe.
'My work for Britain and for Afghanistan makes me a top target for the Taliban, they have been looking for me. Nowhere is safe. The leak of data makes it more dangerous.'
Meanwhile there have been at least two murders.
The families of both men killed – one an officer with the Afghan special forces, the other an intelligence officer – have been ordered by the warlords in charge of the country not to discuss their assassinations.
But friends said they had been waiting to hear if they could move to the UK, under the ARAP scheme which was set up to reward those who had worked alongside British forces.
The first victim, Bashir, was a 38-year-old officer with the Triples. As he walked near his home, he was followed by three gunmen in a car. One gunman climbed from the car and shot him several times at point blank range, witnessed, friends said, by his terrified wife and two young children.
The second victim, Abdul, was a former intelligence officer with the National Directorate of Security (NDS) which worked closely with MI6, diplomats and UK forces. Earlier this week, he was shot dead and his body handed over to his family. It showed fresh signs of torture, friends said.
It is not confirmed whether the details of the men and their families were among the 100,000 'at risk of death' impacted by the data breach that was discovered by the Daily Mail in August 2023. The newspaper was prevented from revealing the data disaster by the Government's unprecedented super-injunction which was lifted in mid-July after the Mail fought a two-year battle for justice in secret courts.
Today the MOD said: 'The independent Rimmer Review concluded that it is highly unlikely that merely being on the spreadsheet means an individual is more likely to be targeted, and this is the basis on which the court lifted its super injunction.'
Taliban assassins are said to have carried out dozens of killings, including the executions of at least four former members of the Afghan military deported from Iran in one brutal operation. One Afghan, who worked for Britain and is still in hiding, suggested between 50-60 had been killed in July.
Meanwhile Aftab, who worked for six years for the UK, said a colleague had been arrested at an internet café – where Afghan go to check the UK government's website about their cases.
Aftab, 28, said: 'It is a disgrace that we were not told of the data leak when the government of the UK found out two years ago. It has left us terrified, and watching the number of killings rise while wondering if we will be next. I have moved home twice in a week.' Aftab said he believed it was 'only a matter of time' until he was found by the Taliban. He said: 'At best I will be beaten and tortured by the Taliban…they are monsters. At worst I will be killed.'
Amid the fallout from the data leak and the Government's super-injunction scandal, the Ministry of Defence's top civil servant will stand down later this year. The Permanent Secretary David Williams (who is no relation to the author of this article) told staff at the department that he will quit in autumn. Tan Dhesi, chairman of the House of Commons' Defence Committee, said: 'David Williams' many years of dedicated public service deserve respect. It's not yet clear whether his decision to step down is linked to the recently revealed Afghan data breach. However, what is clear is that this grave failure of data protection demands proper scrutiny, which the Defence Committee certainly intends to provide.
'The fact that this breach has put at risk our courageous British service personnel and the Afghans who bravely supported them, makes the situation even more shocking. I am sure the committee will want to investigate and understand how this could have been allowed to happen.'
When he announced the data breach to Parliament, Defence Secretary John Healey told MPs his 'first concern has been to notify as many people as possible who are affected by the data incident and to provide them with further advice'. He said the MOD had a new dedicated gov.uk website offering security advice.
The MoD said: 'Permanent secretary David Williams will step down this autumn and the recruitment process for his successor is under way.
'Since 2021, David has led the department through a period of significant activity, and we thank him for his contribution.'
The covert airlift of thousands of Afghans – codenamed Operation Rubific – was launched after the UK military catastrophically lost a database of details of those who had applied for sanctuary in the UK to flee the murderous Taliban.It put 100,000 'at risk of death', in the Government's own words.
It also exposed British officials, special forces and MI6 spies whose details were on the list.
The Ministry of Defence's top civil servant, permanent secretary David Williams (no relation to the author of this article), is to step down from his post in the autumn
The confidential database that the British government lost, putting '100,000 people at risk of death' and triggering the evacuations mission Operation Rubific
How ministers signed up to a £7billion scheme to relocate Afghans to the UK, without asking or telling taxpayers or MPs. The MOD says the figure has since been revised to around £6billion
After the Mail was the first newspaper in the world to discover the data breach, in August 2023, the Ministry of Defence mounted a cover-up and successfully hushed up our exclusive.
They obtained a super-injunction and, cloaked by the unprecedented news blackout, ministers have been clandestinely running one of the biggest peacetime evacuation missions in modern British history to rescue people the UK had imperilled – smuggling thousands out of Afghanistan and flying them to Britain at vast cost, with taxpayers being neither asked nor informed.
The Daily Mail revealed how the projected £7billion cost was signed off while taxpayers and MPs were kept in the dark.