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  • News Desk
  • Jul 15th, 2008
  • Comments Off on Afghanistan suspends talks with Pakistan
Afghanistan said Monday it would boycott a series of upcoming meetings with Pakistan unless "bilateral trust" was restored after attacks it blamed on its neighbour's intelligence and military. The cabinet decision was announced soon after President Hamid Karzai directly accused Pakistan's intelligence agency (ISI) of a role in a series of deadly attacks including the bombing of the Indian embassy last week.

"The people of Afghanistan, the world, know very well that Pakistan's intelligence agency and military have turned that country to the biggest exporter of terrorism and extremism to the world, particularly Afghanistan," the cabinet said in a statement.

A cabinet meeting had decided Afghanistan was "compelled" to suspend its involvement in various bilateral and regional meetings due in Dubai, Islamabad and Kabul this month and in August, the statement said. The reason was the "violence-seeking policies of Pakistan's ISI and military officials. "The suspension would hold unless "an atmosphere of bilateral trust is established," it said.

The cabinet echoed Karzai's accusation that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had masterminded attacks against the US-backed government and its international allies who have about 70,000 soldiers here. "Every day all over our country, children, women, elders, teachers and Afghanistan's international partners ... get killed at the hands of elements of this organisation, ISI," the statement said.

It said the ISI was responsible for "terrorist attacks" that included a suicide bombing against the Indian embassy in Kabul last week that killed 60 people and a failed April assassination attempt on Karzai. Other "destructive attacks are all indicators of ISI's attempts to recapture and destroy our country," the cabinet said.

Pakistan has firmly denied involvement in the Indian embassy attack and the wave of violence in Afghanistan, accusing its neighbour of shelving its own responsibilities to fight extremist violence.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008


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