OTTAWA — Canada’s top soldier has fired back against allegations by a former military interpreter that Canadian soldiers routinely transferred Afghans to torture and illegally shot an unarmed Afghan in the back of the head.

The Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen. Walt Natynczyk, says the allegations levied by Ahmadshah Malgarai, an Afghan-Canadian who worked as an interpreter with the Forces, never happened as he described.

Malgarai told a committee of MPs studying the transfer of Afghan detainees Wednesday, that Canadian soldiers deliberately sent detainees, believed to be withholding information, to be tortured.

Malgarai also said he was told Canadian soldiers had shot an unarmed Afghan.

After a two-day internal probe, Natynczyk said the Canadian Forces believe they have identified the event Malgarai was referring to, but that the Afghan shot was an “armed individual (who) posed a direct and imminent threat to CF soldiers.”

The “very well documented” event occurred during the night of the 18th and 19th of June 2007, Natynczyk wrote in a letter to the chair of the committee, Conservative MP Kevin Sorenson.

Canadian soldiers had launched an operation against a compound suspected of being a staging area for rocket attacks against Kandahar Airfield and IED attacks against coalition soldiers, Natynczyk writes, when a shooter who was providing operational support identified and assessed an individual to be a threat and shot him.

When the Forces’ interviewed ten Afghans detained after the operation, two individuals alleged coalition members “had planted a pistol on the deceased insurgent” but one person later retracted his allegations, Natynczyk wrote. A post-operation review found Canadians acted according to all the rules of engagement, he said.

Natynczyk also said, “The Canadian Forces do not transfer individuals for the purposes of gathering information,” and do not transfer detainees when there exists a real risk they could face danger.

NDP defence critic Jack Harris said he remains concerned Canadian detainees were sent to be interrogated by the “dreaded NDS” (National Directorate of Security).

Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh said he questions why one of the detainees recanted his allegations and if he did so while in NDS custody.

“There is such a critical mass of evidence and contradictions and allegations, that… it is really difficult to believe how Canadians will learn the truth without a judicial inquiry,” he said.

althia.raj@sunmedia.ca