Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has said India could finish us by attacking with 20 (nuclear) bombs if Pakistan launched even a single nuclear attack on the neighbouring country, according to Karachi-based newspaper Dawn.

Speaking to the media in the UAE on Friday, Musharraf said: "Indian and Pakistan relations have again reached a dangerous level. There will be no nuclear attack. If we would attack India with one atomic bomb, then the neighbouring country could finish us by attacking with 20 bombs. Then the only solution is that we should first attack them with 50 atom bombs so that they cannot hit us with 20 bombs. Are you ready to first launch an attack with 50 bombs?". Meanwhile, Pakistan premier Imran Khan on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "give peace a chance" and assured him that, true to his word, he will act immediately if New Delhi provides Islamabad with "actionable intelligence" on the Pulwama terror attack. The appeal came just a day after Modi threw a challenge to Khan, asking him to act honourably by bringing to justice those behind the strike, if he was indeed a "Pathan's son". In the meantime, amidst heightened India-Pakistan tensions, three of Pakistan's former foreign secretaries have urged their government to be prepared to deter any "aggressive action" by India after the deadly Pulwama terror attack while engaging in "robust diplomacy" to end the crisis peacefully.

Days after the attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group that killed 40 CRPF soldiers on February 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said security forces have been given free hand to avenge the dastardly act. In a joint article published in Dawn newspaper on Sunday, former foreign secretaries Riaz Hussain Khokhar, Riaz Mohammad Khan and Inamul Haq urged the media, political leadership, intelligentsia and public opinion makers in the two countries to show "responsibility to exercise restraint and take measures to bring some equanimity to the troubled environment".