President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan have discussed the peace process and upcoming elections in Afghanistan during a phone conversation on Wednesday night.

“Pleased to have received phone call from Prime Minister Imran Khan last night. He offered his condolences regarding the loss of lives due to terrorist attacks in Parwan and Kabul,” President Ghani wrote on Twitter.

Ghani further said: “As there’s precedence of Pakistan’s help in reduction of violence during past elections, I ask Pakistan to help mitigate violence in the next one. PM Khan promised help within their capacity.”

At the same time, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has released a statement, saying “we expect Afghanistan’s institutions to take all necessary steps to ensure the election is transparent and credible to Afghan voters”.

Pompeo said the U.S. will hold all candidates “accountable” to the code of conduct they have signed.

“We call on all parties, including the Taliban, to ensure Afghan voters can go to polling centers on election day, without fear of intimidation, attack, or violence,” the statement added.

The Afghan presidential election is scheduled to be held on September 28 this month in which 17 candidates will compete against each other.