Presidential candidate Ahmad Wali Massoud on Wednesday said that President Ashraf Ghani is trying to manipulate the elections so that he can remain in power for another term.

Addressing a gathering of his supporters in Kabul, Massoud said the people have been kept away from key issues around peace and elections.

Commander of the Third Regiment of the Afghan National Army in the central province of Ghazni, Colonel Abdul Mubin Mujtaba, was killed in an attack by two Army soldiers, affiliated to the Taliban, in Qarabagh district of the province on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesman for Ministry of Defense Fawad Aman said.

Aman said that Colonel Mujtaba and other security officials were assessing the security situation of checkpoints along the Ghazni-Kandahar Highway when he came under attack by the suspected army soldiers.