Afghanistan has announced it will boycott a series of meetings with Pakistan, in response to attacks it blames on its neighbour's spy agency, unless "bilateral trust" can be restored.
The cabinet decision, reported on Tuesday, follows comments by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, who accused Pakistan's secret service of being behind a series of recent attacks.
Karzai directly accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of a role in a series of deadly attacks, including the bombing of the Indian embassy last week.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied accusations of involvement in the wave of violence in Afghanistan.
It accuses Kabul of attempting to defer its own responsibilities to combat the causes of Taliban-related violence.
In Islamabad on Monday, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Pakistan's defence minister, rejected the charge that the ISI was involved in the Indian embassy bombing.
But a statement from Afghanistan's cabinet echoed Karzai's accusations.
"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 statement said.
James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said: "This is the strongest statement we have ever seen from Afghan cabinet. It's not just words, it's actions. They are saying they are going to boycott three bilateral meetings - one of which is particlularly key because it is about the border."
The cabinet decision came as a protest to what it called "direct interference in its [Afghanistan's] internal affairs".
"Every day and all over our country, children, women, clerics, teachers, as well as international workers in Afghanistan ... are killed and wounded and disabled," the Afghan statement said.
Further strain
The Afghan government's move is likely to further strain relations between the two countries, whose shared border has become a safe heaven for the Taliban, al-Qaeda and fighters from other armed groups.
"I think this will mean dismay for Nato and for the Americans," Bays said.
While Pakistan is yet to announce its official reaction to the Afghan accusations, Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of the North West Frontier Province, has told Al Jazeera that the problems lie "within" Afghanistan.
Al Jazeera's correspondent Kamal Hyder has learnt that all Afghan television channels have been taken off air in Pakistan.
Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Kabul to boycott Pakistan meetings
I think its time for pakistan to send all afghans back to this hell on earth and block all trade see how fast this p.i.g comes out of his cave .This man is really starting to piss me off .
Most of the ministers of Karzai government studied from indian universities. They are formally invited to Indian parliament to see how budget is presented. They dream that one day they will be able to make their country as successful as india is doing. They believe, with the help of india, Afghanistan will be able to develop better technologies as compare to its neighbouring country Pakistan as india maintain a good reputation in technology among the developing countries (in hardware and software both). They know, on one hand if Indian software and other service industries are maintaining good rankings in the world, manufacturing industries are also doing pretty good progress. Big foreign undertakings are going on and now Indian companies are making world most expensive cars like Jaguar.
And with this type of friendship and expectations from Afghanistan, Indian government also get little bit responsible for Afghanistan. And no wonder why Indian government has committed about $1bn ($970Mn) for the infrastructure development of Afghanistan. Not only funds but also Indian government has been sending engineers and other specialists to Afghanistan for infrastructure development. And with so many expectations from India, if there will be any effort by any way to break relationship between India and Afghanistan, Afghanistan is very likely to get angry and will certainly try to find out all the reasons behind the attack on Indian embassy. I think
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