Britain’s Foreign Office on Sunday admitted that it has been funding public opinion surveys in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which have revealed that US drone attacks were causing resentment among the locals.
According to a report by the Guardian, Foreign Minister Alistair Burt confirmed that his office had supported such surveys in the past.
Respondents in the surveys who believed drone strikes were unjustified rose from 59 percent in 2010 to 63 percent in 2011.
The British government has previously refrained from publicly commenting on the US drone warfare in Pakistan.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s outgoing ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman urged Washington to end drone strikes in the tribal areas in order to help put a bilateral relationship on a sustained upward trajectory.
Commenting on the contentious issue of drone strikes the US carries out in pursuit of militant targets on Pakistani soil, Rehman noted that the drone programme incited anti-American discontent and fueled the “cognitive disconnect” between the two nations.