LONDON, Feb 6: In the last three days there have been three additions to the British government’s charge sheet — two on torture and one on civilian deaths in Afghanistan.

The first is about Britian’s complicity in torture of its citizens in Pakistan, the second concerns colluding with the US in Guatanamo torture cover-up and the third about actual civilian deaths in Afghanistan at the hands of British army.

British intelligence agents have been accused of colluding in the torture of terrorism suspects by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI).

It has also been accused of capitulating to threats from the Bush administration that, if the high court makes public evidence of torture by the CIA on a prisoner held at Guantánamo Bay, the US will stop sharing intelligence about terrorism with the UK. And on Thursday it was revealed that the ministry of defence had deliberately kept the civilian death figures caused by army actions in Afghanistan very low.

Media reports hold senior civil servants and ministers responsible for allowing coercive interrogation techniques – and worse – to be used in Iraq and then their use covered up.

On Friday the Guardian in its report ‘Throwing us off the scent in Afghanistan’ said the arrest of a senior British officer in Afghanistan on charges of leaking classified information has been met with shock and unease among humanitarian aid workers there.

Lt-Col Owen McNally, 48, is being held by military police in Kabul before being interviewed and flown home to face further investigation.

The ministry of defence said in a statement: “We can confirm that a British army officer has been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of breaching the Official Secrets Act. He is being returned to the UK for questioning. The investigation has been referred from the ministry to the Metropolitan Police and is now under consideration.”

No further details will be released at this stage.

However, a number of British newspapers have cited unidentified “senior sources” who have insinuated that McNally was having an affair with Rachel Reid, a former BBC journalist who is now working for Human Rights Watch in Afghanistan.

In a statement released through her lawyer Reid strongly denied allegations in the Sun and Times newspapers of impropriety as being “utterly false”.

The statement said: “Ms Reid has only met the colonel on two occasions, both of which were authorised meetings at the Nato base in Kabul.

The meetings were conducted in the presence of other officials. At these two meetings this colonel and other officials voluntarily answered Ms Reid’s questions about Nato’s knowledge and responsibility for civilian casualties. Ms Reid acted throughout with propriety and professionalism.

Any suggestion or imputation made to the contrary — that she had a relationship with the colonel that was other than at arm’s length — will be met with legal proceedings. Ms Reid is an experienced former BBC journalist and it appears very likely that someone at the MoD is engaging in black propaganda, dishonestly spinning that there was a ‘close relationship’ — nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

This behaviour by an agent of the British government is truly shocking, and the person concerned must be unmasked and punished.”