Former Afghan soldiers who once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with British and American forces are now being hunted, tortured, and executed by the Taliban, while thousands remain stuck in limbo due to delays in the UK’s resettlement schemes.
Taliban Hunts Ex-Allies as UK Delays Afghan Evacuations
A harrowing investigation reveals that more than 100 former members of Afghanistan’s security forces have been killed since 2023.
These men, who risked their lives to aid Western forces during the 20-year war, are now facing brutal retribution, all while British authorities stall on their promise to offer them sanctuary.
Despite assurances of amnesty from the Taliban, the killings haven’t stopped. Take the case of Ali Gul Haidari, a highly trained former Afghan special forces soldier.
After fleeing Afghanistan, he was deported from a neighbouring country and gunned down in front of his wife and children shortly after returning home. He was specifically targeted for his past association with the US military.
“They didn’t have any mercy on him,” said a relative of another tortured commando, Najmuddin, a soldier from the UK-backed “Triples” unit.
Approved for relocation under the UK’s Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), Najmuddin never made it out. The Taliban detained him outside his home, tortured him, and beat him so severely that he required hospitalisation.
His story is not unique. Human rights monitors and journalists have documented at least 110 killings of former Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) since the start of 2023.
Many of these cases involve torture, disappearances, or killings by “unknown gunmen”, a chilling euphemism widely understood to mean Taliban operatives.
This violence comes despite repeated pledges of protection. When the Taliban seized power in August 2021, they announced a blanket amnesty for former Afghan government workers and security personnel. But that promise has proven hollow.
“Local Taliban commanders have summarily executed or forcibly disappeared at least several hundred former Afghan army, police, and intelligence personnel without consequence or any accountability,” said Patricia Gossman from Human Rights Watch.
The UK, meanwhile, has struggled to keep its end of the bargain. In July, the government abruptly shut its resettlement schemes, ARAP and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), to new applicants.
As of October 2025, around 4,200 eligible Afghans and their families remain stranded, awaiting relocation.
This includes soldiers like Naqibullah, a former Afghan colonel who lost his son during a Taliban raid in 2022. Despite strong recommendations from UK officials who worked with him, his relocation bid was rejected.
“They fought our war, now we’ve left them to die.” Thousands of Afghan soldiers who protected British troops are now being hunted. The Taliban call it justice. The West calls it bureaucracy.
While the government insists it is “honouring its commitment,” critics say the UK’s slow and bureaucratic process is effectively condemning these former allies.
Wendy Chamberlain, Liberal Democrat MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afghan Women and Girls, called the situation “absolutely horrendous.”
She added: “It also calls into serious question the intelligence and assumptions the UK government relied upon when closing the ARAP and ACRS schemes.”
Major General Charlie Herbert, who worked directly with Afghan special forces, didn’t hold back: “It’s reprehensible that government delays have enabled the Taliban to wreak revenge… It’s a long story of failed promises and poor delivery.”
Delayed Justice, Rising Death Toll
Recent Ministry of Defence figures show that Afghan applicants rejected under ARAP are waiting over six months for case reviews.
Requests to relocate family members take an average of ten months. During that time, many are in hiding, or worse, already dead.
A legal review into the MoD’s mishandling of resettlement applications, especially those involving elite units like the Triples, was launched in February 2024. The review was supposed to conclude within three months. Now, nearly 20 months on, it remains unfinished.
Daniel Carey, a solicitor representing several former Afghan commandos, says many of his clients have been detained or tortured while waiting: “They applied in 2021. It’s now 2025. Many still await even a first lawful decision.”
Risk Beyond the Border
Even for those who manage to escape Afghanistan, danger still lurks. Deportations from neighbouring countries have led to more deaths.
Ali Gul Haidari’s case is just one of many where former soldiers have been hunted down after being sent back from so-called safe countries.
In the US and UK, many former commanders are watching helplessly as their former comrades are executed one by one.
One US Special Forces advisor described Haidari’s unit as “fully integrated in all our operations.” His killing sent shockwaves through the community of Afghan veterans now scattered across the globe.
The UK government maintains that resettlement cannot be indefinite. But campaigners argue that abruptly shutting schemes while thousands remain in danger is not just a failure of policy it’s a failure of humanity.
“It is particularly galling, and so morally wrong, that the government closed the schemes completely this year,” said Maj Gen Herbert.
And the toll continues to rise. While ministers debate red tape, families are being torn apart. Former allies are being executed in alleyways. Promises, made under fire, are being broken in silence.
