The Taliban has claimed it already got its hands on the leaked list of thousands of Afghans who helped Britain, saying they were already being hunted down.
Dubbed the “kill list”, it contains names of 25,000 Afghans who were applying for asylum, including soldiers who had worked alongside the British Army along with their family members.
The list was leaked in 2022 and was part of a legal cover-up with successive governments spending billions over two years to discreetly relocate those Afghans to the UK in a bid to avoid retribution from the Taliban.
However, the Taliban has responded to revelations about the alleged cover-up by gloating about its existing access to the list.
A senior Taliban official said “we got the list from the internet during the very first days when it was leaked”.
The official told The Telegraph that many on the list had either gone into hiding or fled Afghanistan, but a “special unit” had been launched to ensure they were found and “do not work with Britain”.
“We’ve been calling and visiting their family members to track them down,” the official added.
“Senior figures in the establishment in Kandahar are pressuring officials in Kabul to find them.”
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The Taliban
The official said senior establishment figures “believe these individuals are still working with the British” and want the “problem to be dealt with”.
Another Taliban official further told The Telegraph that searches for the individuals had escalated in recent months, including names being handed to border forces to make sure they remain in the country
