Canada's Military Police Complaints Commission will look into allegations that prisoners were abused while in the custody of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Peter Tinsley, chairman of the military police watchdog, says the allegations are a serious matter. He says his investigation will be independent and will help ensure public confidence in the military police system.

A military board of inquiry and the Canadian Forces national investigation services are already looking into the matter.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has pledged that if the complaints are substantiated, corrective action will be taken.

University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran raised the allegations last week in a letter of complaint sent to the Military Police Complaints Commission.

Attaran alleged that at least one, and as many as three, Afghan detainees "taken captive by the Canadian Forces appears to have been beaten while detained and interrogated by them."

The accusations are based on documents that Attaran obtained under the Access to Information Act.

"I discovered that on a single day last year (in April), a single interrogator working for the Canadian military brought three men to Kandahar Airfield," Attaran told Canada AM earlier this week.

"All three of them had a similar set of injuries to their face, to their head and the most seriously injured man had his eyes swollen, cuts on his eyebrows, a slash across his forehead and a cut on his cheek."

Attaran said it seems the men never received proper medical attention before being handed off to the Afghans, never to be seen again.

After receiving Attaran's letter, Tinsley notified Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier and Capt. Steve Moore, who heads the military police, about the allegations.

Tinsley said in a letter to the men that the complaint suggests "various failings by the military police members involved relative to safeguarding the well-being of the persons in custody, and, more particularly, in respect of their failure to investigate the causes of various injuries which may have been sustained while in (Canadian Forces) as opposed to military police custody."