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NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Declaring the nuclear option unthinkable, Pakistan's military President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday sought to calm escalating fears that a military standoff with India could lead to atomic war.
As the United Nations prepared to evacuate families of its staff from Pakistan, Musharraf said in a television interview, "I don't think either side is that irresponsible to go to that limit."
"I would even go to the extent of saying one shouldn't even be discussing these things, because any sane individual cannot even think of going into this unconventional war, whatever the pressures," he told CNN.
The United States, Britain and other Western nations have flown home diplomats and their families from India and Pakistan and urged tens of thousands of their citizens to leave.
A million troops are facing each other across the India-Pakistan border, where armies have kept up a steady exchange of mortar and machinegun fire that has left dozens dead and displaced thousands of villagers over the past fortnight.
Adding to the tension, two grenade attacks in Indian Kashmir on Saturday killed one civilian and wounded 24. They followed two similar assaults on Friday. India blames the attacks on militants armed and trained by Pakistan who are fighting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region.
India has said it will not be the first to strike with nuclear weapons. Musharraf said he would go beyond that.
"We've called for a no-war pact (with India), that there shouldn't be any war," he said. "We've called for denuclearization of South Asia, so we've called for a reduction of forces."
INDIA ASKS: WHAT IF?
India is estimated to have 100-150 nuclear warheads and Pakistan 25-50. Last month, Pakistan tested ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads deep into India.
Reflecting growing unease among Indians, the latest edition of the respected magazine India Today carried a cover picture of urban workers fleeing an orange mushroom cloud over the Gateway of India in Bombay.
"WHAT IF..." read the headline.
Secretary of State Colin Powell invoked the threat of nuclear war in a BBC interview on Friday.
"Now, I think both sides recognize that the most horrific thing that could happen in the year 2002 is, for the second time in history, a nuclear exchange to take place," he said.
There are fears that any war would quickly escalate into nuclear exchanges that could kill millions and obliterate the main cities of both countries.
The most likely flashpoint is Kashmir, over which the countries have fought two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.
Indian police said the first grenade attack on Saturday in Kashmir was on a police post in Anantnag. A total of 15 people were wounded, one critically.
The second attack on a security patrol in Kulgam town in the Anantnag district killed a civilian and wounded nine.
Meanwhile, a diplomatic war between India and Pakistan took a dramatic twist.
India said a staff member at its High Commission (embassy) in Islamabad was abducted by plainclothes men.
On Friday, Indian officials said a Pakistan diplomat in New Delhi was picked up after being caught red-handed accepting classified papers from a retired air force sergeant. Pakistan angrily accused India of torturing the diplomat.
NO PANIC EXODUS
A U.N. source said hundreds of family members of Pakistan-based staff could be evacuated.
Japan urged its nationals to postpone travel to India, after a similar warning about travel to Pakistan. It repeated a call to Japanese already in India to leave. France and Belgium urged their citizens to quit the subcontinent.
There was no sign of a mass exodus of foreign nationals from India, despite the travel warnings.
"Seats are easily available on all airlines," said Akhil Chugh, in charge of international ticketing at the New Delhi office of travel firm Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.
Vivek Anand, a British Airways official at New Delhi airport, said: "Our operations are normal. There has been no major blocking of seats and we are not yet expecting any surge in demand."
A U.S. embassy spokesman in New Delhi said about 50 non-essential staff members, including diplomats and their families, left on Friday night, some on scheduled holidays.
"More will continue to leave tonight and every night," Gordon Duguid told Reuters. He said the estimated 60,000 U.S. nationals in India included Indian migrants with U.S. passports.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said on Saturday the call for U.S. nationals to leave India reflected a high level of concern about a potential war.
Wolfowitz, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a security conference in Singapore, also called for calm.
"We would like to see India continue to exercise restraint. Clearly the goal is to ratchet down this crisis," he said.
The build-up of troops along the border was triggered by a bloody December attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistani-based militants.
Tensions flared again after a raid on an Indian army camp in Kashmir on May 14 that left 34 people dead, including the gunmen.
INDIA WANTS ACTION, NOT WORDS
Musharraf has pledged to halt border incursions by Islamic militant groups, but it is far from clear he has the authority to deliver. Kashmir is a popular cause in Pakistan, and militants already based in Indian Kashmir are capable of launching attacks at any time.
Indian Home (interior) Minister Lal Krishna Advani said New Delhi was waiting for deeds, not words, from Pakistan.
He told a rally in Kashmir that India was "seriously considering how it can counter this proxy war that has been going on for two decades now."
"Which is why we will not take any decisions based on what you (Pakistan) say but on what you do. And this is something you should know."
"We will take decisions based on what happens on the ground," he added.