Latest news with #Kandahar
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘When that data falls into the hands of the Taliban it will lead to my arrest, torture and death'
Here are the voices of Afghans whose details were included in a 2022 data leak, which was made public on Tuesday after a superinjunction was lifted. All names have been changed. Azizullah I worked with UK and coalition forces as an interpreter in Helmand and Kandahar for more than a decade. When I read the email on the morning of 15 July, I froze. It felt like my blood had turned to ice. Finding that the UK government had accidentally leaked the names and details of people like me – Afghans who had worked with British forces, who had trusted them, and who are now living in fear because of that trust. The first thing that flashed through my mind wasn't myself. It was my family. My mother, my brother, my sister, they're in Turkey right now, waiting. We've been waiting for four years under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP), sending email after email, holding on to the promise that the UK would not abandon us. And now this. This breach. This betrayal. I am the one handing their paperwork and the only one aware until now about this leak. I still haven't told them. How can I? My family has already lived through enough trauma. If I tell them what's happened, I'm terrified of what it will do to them, not just emotionally, but physically. They will break. I know it. And it's not just them. My aunt and her children are still in Afghanistan. They've worked extensively with ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) earlier and later, the coalition forces – UK and US troops both. They are in hiding now. If they are found, they will die. There is no question. We are not talking about hypothetical risk. We are talking about people being hunted, arrested, tortured, killed. And it's happening now. They are going to die in that hell unless someone acts. And let me be clear: it is only the UK government's responsibility to save them. This is their mistake. They owe us our lives. Naser I worked alongside coalition forces in Afghanistan – not just as an interpreter but also on security projects. When the chaos erupted at Abbey Gate in August 2021, I held a laissez-passer, but still, I couldn't get on any evacuation flights. Since then, I've applied again and again to the US, UK, and EU governments for help. I even risked travelling to Pakistan, waiting there for over a year with no income and constant fear. Others working with me were relocated to Germany from Pakistan. I waited and watched as one by one many of my colleagues left. But life there (Pakistan) was unbearable, and I chose to come back to Kabul, because nowhere else treated us well. I didn't even know that emails were sent yesterday. My brother got one and told me. The emails we sent with our requests over the years, our files, contained our pictures taken alongside Nato troops, our home addresses, and details of the security projects we worked on. All the information that could help us relocate was sent out. I'm terrified. How can anyone be this careless with our lives? The Taliban has been actively hunting down those who worked with UK forces. I'm not angry! I am ashamed that I put my children's lives at risk for a foreign power. My family and I have been detained multiple times over the years – my brothers, my cousins and me. Back then, at least, I hoped the Taliban didn't know everything about our past. But now? How do we protect ourselves if they suddenly produce a list? What if we deny it and they show us the proof in front of our eyes? The last 24 hours have been unbearable. Some people have received invitations from the UK government since 2022, but not us. It feels like we've been forgotten. I'm begging the UK government: don't only help those stuck in Pakistan and Iran; please help those of us you worked with who are trapped here in Afghanistan. My children, my elderly mother – they only have me. Most of my family members have already left for other countries. I am here. I'm scared and lost. They (UK authorities) told us not to reply to emails, but to use the portal instead. Four years of waiting, and still no help. What hope do we have now? We lost everything in Pakistan – our savings, our dignity. Now, with no money and no evacuation flights, neighbours pushing us out, I wonder: are we not human? Don't we deserve help? Sameem I was granted refugee status in the UK in 2013 and I have since worked as a freelance interpreter for the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Defence, which included training British soldiers. My wife joined me in the UK and I applied to relocate my family – my father, brother, sisters – through the Arap [Afghan relocations and assistance policy] scheme but I was told they were not eligible. But my family are at high risk in Afghanistan because of their jobs. My father was a prosecutor for the Afghan government for many years. The Taliban killed one of my brothers in 2011 and another was shot dead in front of his two children in 2021. My family has been living in hiding since the fall of Kabul. Yesterday [Tuesday], I received an email from the UK government stating that my data might have been leaked. They provided me with a link to a self-checker and it showed that it had. It's really concerning and frustrating because it means the Taliban can easily target my family now. I replied to the email saying: 'My family were at high risk back home in Afghanistan and you didn't help to relocate them, but now you've shared their data. If anything happens to them, who will take responsibility for that?' They haven't replied to my email. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The British government must now take responsibility for this breach of data. I've already lost two members of my family. I don't want to lose more. Shah I know my name is on the list that was leaked because I was notified by the UK government that my details were compromised in a Ministry of Defence data breach. My family and I, living in Afghanistan, now face an imminent threat to our lives because of this breach. I believe that when that data falls into the hands of the Taliban it will lead to my arrest, torture and death. After the Taliban took over, I went into hiding because I had an important role in the courts bringing Taliban terrorists captured by the British to justice. Family members have been interrogated by the Taliban to try to get them to give information about where I'm hiding, so it is now too dangerous for me to have any contact with them. I have moved into a safe house because of the danger I'm in. In the spring of 2023, the Taliban's interest in me increased. I believe this may be linked to the data breach. They tracked down my family but I wasn't at home because I was hiding somewhere else. Since then many members of my family have been interrogated about my whereabouts. Contrary to what the British government is saying, I don't believe the Taliban has ever lost interest in me. The worst part of all this is not knowing until this week that my name was on a leaked database that the Taliban may have had access to. Ahmad I was on my way to a doctor's appointment to seek treatment for a stress-related illness when the email from the UK government appeared in my inbox. I felt awful. I was already under immense stress due to my family's situation, but this made things worse. Between 2016 to August 2021 I worked with NDS-D011, a unit of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) that was supported by British intelligence. After the fall of Kabul and my evacuation to the UK in 2021, I submitted the personal details of my immediate family – including my parents, two sisters, and three brothers – to the Ministry of Defence as part of a family reunification application. Despite over three years passing, neither I, nor any of my approximately 120 colleagues who also relocated to the UK, have succeeded in bringing our families to safety. I am part of a group chat with these individuals, and yesterday [Tuesday], 65 others reported receiving the same email acknowledging the data breach. Last night, we all contacted our families and warned them to take extra safety precautions. None of our relatives can live freely or safely in Afghanistan. Two of my former colleagues who were unable to flee the country were arrested by the Taliban about eight months ago and remain imprisoned. The Taliban consider anyone who worked with foreign governments a traitor and punish them accordingly. Can these governments guarantee that the Taliban will stay on their promise not to target our families?
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Taliban: We had the ‘kill list' all along – and are hunting them down
The Taliban claims the leaked list of Afghans who helped Britain has been in its possession since 2022, and it has been hunting down those named ever since. The so-called 'kill list' contains the names of 25,000 Afghans who were applying for asylum – soldiers who had worked with the British Army, and their family members. It became the subject of a legal cover-up after it was leaked in 2022, with successive governments spending billions over two years to secretly relocate thousands of Afghans to the UK to avoid Taliban reprisals. Now Taliban figures claim to have had the list all along, potentially rendering the secret plot pointless. A senior Taliban official told The Telegraph: 'We got the list from the internet during the very first days when it was leaked.' The official said many individuals on the list had fled Afghanistan or gone into hiding, but that the Taliban had hired groups to monitor their homes and relatives' houses around the clock. 'A special unit has been launched to find them and make sure they do not work with Britain,' the official added. 'We've been calling and visiting their family members to track them down. 'Senior figures in the establishment in Kandahar are pressuring officials in Kabul to find them. They believe these individuals are still working with the British, and say the problem must be dealt with.' A second Taliban official told The Telegraph that the hunt for individuals named in the document had intensified in recent months, with names handed over to border forces to stop them from leaving the country. Many only discovered they were on the list when they tried to cross Taliban-controlled borders. 'The border forces have had the list for the past few months and have orders not to let anyone leave,' the Taliban official said from Kabul. 'These people are seen as traitors, and the plan has been to find as many of them as possible. 'Whoever leaked that file is actually helping us. There may be a general amnesty in place, but spies cannot escape justice.' The Government has accepted that the court battle could have put the Afghans in even greater danger. Until Tuesday at noon, an unprecedented super-injunction obtained by the government in 2023 prevented the media, Parliament or anyone else revealing details of a £7 billion scheme to grant asylum to thousands of Afghans, which was instigated as a result of the data breach. The media was also banned from reporting the fact that the leak had happened. Ministers obtained the super-injunction – the first ever granted to a British government – on the basis that lives would be at risk if the public, and by extension the Taliban, knew that a list of nearly 25,000 names had briefly appeared online after it was accidentally shared by a Royal Marine in 2022. The injunction was kept in place for nearly two years despite grave misgivings from a judge about the public being misled. Mr Justice Chamberlain, the judge who lifted the injunction, said there was 'a significant chance that it was in fact endangering' some of the Afghans being relocated to the UK, and the effect on those who were not being brought to the UK was 'likely to be adverse overall'. He argued that by going to such lengths to keep the scheme a secret, the government could have 'added more value' to the leaked list in the eyes of the Taliban, who would be aware of people being flown to the UK. The British government responded to the data breach by launching Operation Rubific, a covert mission to contain the leak and prevent public disclosure of the breach. About £7 billion of taxpayers' money was allocated to handle the fallout, including what officials called the largest covert peacetime evacuation operation. Nearly 24,000 Afghans affected by the breach have been brought to the UK or will be relocated in the future. Because of the Taliban's tight restrictions on information in Afghanistan, many people do not know they are on the list. One of those affected fled to neighbouring Iran nearly two years ago, after the Taliban began searching for him in his home town in western Afghanistan. A relative told The Telegraph: 'He and his family escaped to Iran after hearing about the list. Since then, Taliban fighters have regularly come to my house and the homes of other relatives, asking about him.' 'They keep pressuring us to reveal his whereabouts. They once arrested me and beat me for a day. My uncle served with the special forces. The Taliban keep saying he must come with them for questioning. 'It's putting everyone in the family at risk – being related to someone on a Taliban kill list is a death sentence. They have all his details – his name, his wife's name, even his children's names. 'We were shocked when they listed them. If they can't find him, they've said they'll kill another family member instead. 'The blood of a spy is in your veins,' they told us.' The man remains in Iran, but the Islamic Republic is now forcing him – and hundreds of other Afghans – back into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. 'He has nowhere to go,' the relative said. 'If he's deported, he'll be killed. They have everything on him.'
Hindustan Times
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Ali Fazal says he lost many good projects trying to balance Hollywood and Bollywood
Actor Ali Fazal has been part of several international projects over the years, ranging from cameos in blockbusters like Furious 7 and Death on the Nile to starring roles in Victoria & Abdul and Kandahar. However, several times, these appearances have come at the cost of other roles. Ali Fazal had a prominent role in Gerard Butler-starrer Kandahar. On balancing international and Indian projects In a chat with HT, Ali talks about how tricky it is to balance being a part of both Indian and international projects. "It is tough," he says, "The real hard part is that I lose out a lot. There are two to three projects that I feel bad at losing out on. My colleagues have done them and done a good job, so it would be unfair to name them. But it's all good. I am happy for them." Ali says that trying to work in the West means he often has no releases in India for long durations. "There is a common complaint when people say 'tum itna dikhte nahi ho (you aren't seen much)'. But what can I do when I am trying to balance the two industries? I have seen the other side, so I want to do more work there," he explains. On doing Hollywood 'sans fanfare' We point out to him that he stars in several big Hollywood projects without much fanfare, as opposed to several other Indian actors. Ali laughs and responds, "I am not oblivious to it. I don't have an 'I don't care' attitude. I do care. At the end of the day, we are presenting ourselves, and I want to do that." For now, the man is focusing on Hindi cinema. He recently starred in Anurag Basu's romantic drama Metro In Dino. Up next for him is Rajkumar Santoshi's Lahore 1947, which also stars Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty, and Shabana Azmi. He will then reprise his role as Guddu Pandit in Mirzapur, the movie. The film will act a culmination to the popular Mirzapur show.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Afghan taxi drivers beat the heat with handmade air coolers
In a sweltering city in Afghanistan, taxis have been spotted with scrubby barrels and exhaust tubes mounted to their roofs. These are the hand-made air coolers that taxi drivers have cobbled together in their desperate efforts to beat the heat. Temperatures regularly exceed 40C (104F) in the southern city of Kandahar, but air-conditioning units inside cars often break down, the cabbies lament. "This works better than [built-in] AC," one driver, Abdul Bari, told AFP news agency. "ACs only cool the front. This cooler spreads air throughout the car." A video from the news agency shows Mr Bari using sticky tape to attach the cooler's exhaust vent onto the taxi's window, while an assistant climbs atop the taxi to fix the body of the unit on it. The only issue with this setup is the need to manually refill water in the unit twice a day, Mr Bari said. "But it works well for me." One of the poorest countries in the world, Afghanistan is also among the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Temperatures in most parts of the country are expected to soar in coming weeks, the government has warned. Gul Mohammad, another taxi driver in Kandahar, says he turned to these customised coolers a few years ago as the weather started getting "extremely hot". "These cars' AC systems didn't work, and repairs were too expensive. So I went to a technician, [and] had a custom cooler made," he told AFP. The 32-year-old spent 3,000 Afghanis ($43; £32) on it. Passengers have applauded the creative solution. "When there's no cooler, it becomes very difficult. I even carry an anti-heat medicine with me," said 19-year-old Norullah, who said he recently had to get an intravenous drip to treat a heat-related illness. Afghanistan recorded its warmest-ever spring from April to June this year. A severe drought has also been spreading nationwide, devastating crops and rural livelihoods, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said last week. Experts have repeatedly warned that the fallout from climate change would deepen Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis. The country has been left out of United Nations climate negotiations since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, after US-led forces left the country.
BBC News
11-07-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Afghanistan: Taxi drivers use handmade air coolers to beat the heat
In a sweltering city in Afghanistan, taxis have been spotted with scrubby barrels and exhaust tubes mounted to their are the hand-made air coolers that taxi drivers have cobbled together in their desperate efforts to beat the regularly exceed 40C (104F) in the southern city of Kandahar, but air-conditioning units inside cars often break down, the cabbies lament."This works better than [built-in] AC," one driver, Abdul Bari, told AFP news agency. "ACs only cool the front. This cooler spreads air throughout the car." A video from the news agency shows Mr Bari using sticky tape to attach the cooler's exhaust vent onto the taxi's window, while an assistant climbs atop the taxi to fix the body of the unit on only issue with this setup is the need to manually refill water in the unit twice a day, Mr Bari said. "But it works well for me."One of the poorest countries in the world, Afghanistan is also among the most vulnerable to the impact of climate in most parts of the country are expected to soar in coming weeks, the government has warned. Gul Mohammad, another taxi driver in Kandahar, says he turned to these customised coolers a few years ago as the weather started getting "extremely hot". "These cars' AC systems didn't work, and repairs were too expensive. So I went to a technician, [and] had a custom cooler made," he told AFP. The 32-year-old spent 3,000 Afghanis ($43; £32) on have applauded the creative solution. "When there's no cooler, it becomes very difficult. I even carry an anti-heat medicine with me," said 19-year-old Norullah, who said he recently had to get an intravenous drip to treat a heat-related illness. Afghanistan recorded its warmest-ever spring from April to June this year. A severe drought has also been spreading nationwide, devastating crops and rural livelihoods, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said last have repeatedly warned that the fallout from climate change would deepen Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis. The country has been left out of United Nations climate negotiations since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, after US-led forces left the country.
