The federal government is dismissing an incendiary newspaper report about the continued abuse of detainees in Afghanistan.

Prisoners at an Afghan jail in Kandahar are being bashed with bricks, having their fingernails ripped out, getting electrocuted, being forced to stand up without sleeping and are whipped with electric cables, Montreal La Presse reported on Monday.

The newspaper cites interviews with three prisoners and independent sources including a spokesman for the Afghan Human Rights Commission and a prison boss.

The Conservative government in Ottawa responded to similar reports last spring by saying it had a new a deal to monitor detainees.

On Monday, the government responded to the latest report by dismissing it as Taliban propaganda.

"We do expect these kinds of allegations from the Taliban," said Tory House leader Peter Van Loan.

"It is their standard operating procedure to engage in these kinds of accusations."

But Montreal La Presse painted a different portrait after a recent visit to a Kandahar prison.

A spokesman for the Afghan Human Rights Commission is quoted as saying that about a third of prisoners are still being tortured by Afghanistan's secret service before they are taken to prison.

"The Canadians give us a sealed envelope with the names of the prisoners. The problem is that list never corresponds to the one compiled by the secret service," said commission spokesman Shamuldin Tanwir.

The newspaper also quoted a senior official at the Sarpoza prison in Kandahar and said he did not want to be identified: "Yes. The detainees are tortured by the secret services before they're brought to us."

One detainee told La Presse that when he was captured, Canadian soldiers told him not to worry. He said they gave him a document guaranteeing there was no more torture of prisoners in Afghanistan.

"The people from the secret services ripped it up and tossed it in my face," the prisoner is quoted as saying.

"They beat me for 20 days."