Afghan intelligence services and national police are accused of “a compelling pattern and practice of systematic torture and ill-treatment”  of detainees in an UN report released on Monday.

The report detailed the “use of interrogation methods, including suspension, beatings, electric shock, stress positions and threatened sexual assault", highlighted that such practices are "unacceptable by any standard of international human rights law.”

Acting on a draft of the report earlier this year, NATO forces stopped the transfer of suspected insurgents to security sites that had been identified in the UN report, however, concerns have been raised that such abuses occurred despite American-led forces closely overseeing the Afghan agencies. 

Responding to the report's allegations, the Afghan deputy national security adviser, Shaida M. Abdali, said,

“We take this report very seriously.”

“Our government, especially the president, has taken a very strong stand on the protection of everyone’s human rights, their humanity, everywhere and especially in prisons and in detention.”

The UN director for human rights in Afghanistan highlighted the importance of accountability and prosecution of those responsible, in order to “prevent and end such acts in the future.”

The NATO commander, General John Allen, is believed to have initiated an investigation into the facilities where such abuses are alleged to have taken place.