Afghan officials on Monday denied UN allegations that prisoners in government custody were being tortured.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a report on Sunday found that torture persisted in numerous detention facilities.
"We reject all types of torture mentioned in this report. The Ministry of Interior is ready to conduct joint assessments with the UN office," said General Abdul Rahman Rahman, the deputy Interior
Minister.
The UN report found 43 per cent of detainees surveyed had said that ill-treatment was prevalent in police jails.
Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, acknowledged some "misbehavior" on the part of policemen and prison workers. "The Afghan government does not have any policy of torture
in detention centers," he added.
He said that the government last year dismissed 200 prison employees for misbehaving toward prisoners, giving no further details.
"We have 25,000 prisoners and a police officer among the 150,000 force could misbehave. It is hard to prevent but we always keep an eye on it," he said.
The acting director of the main intelligence agency denied that prisoners were tortured or abused by intelligence agents, adding that those interviewed by the UN had lied.
"This is an intelligence and psychological war. Each fighter is tasked to blame the national security forces when national and international institutions question you," said Hesamuddin Hesam, the acting director of National Directorate of Security.
His agency was one of the institutions named in the UN report, which said 34 per cent of those interviewed had complained of ill-treatment or torture in the agency-run detention facilities.
The report said more than half of the prisoners interviewed complained of experiencing at least some kind of ill-treatment or torture.
There were 14 different methods of torture and ill-treatment implemented by the security authorities, the report found, including electric shocks, twisting of genitals and hanging by the wrists.