ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office denounced on Friday the latest US drone attack, which is believed to have killed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, and said that such strikes severely affected efforts for peace and stability in the region.

“The drone strikes have a negative impact on the … desire … to ensure peace and stability in the region,” the Foreign Office said in a statement on the drone attack targeting the TTP chief.

A government delegation was set to meet Taliban leaders on Saturday. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had told British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Thursday that his government had started talks with the TTP to end violence that had claimed thousands of lives.

In a separate telephonic conversation, Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry said it was for the interior ministry to confirm or deny the killing of Mehsud in the attack.

The statement reiterated the government’s stance that the attacks by remote- controlled planes violated the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and that there was a consensus in the country for getting the strikes stopped.

It said the strikes were counter-productive and caused deaths of innocent civilian, which entailed human rights and humanitarian implications.

The defence ministry said in a statement in the Senate on Wednesday that drone attacks had killed only 67 civilians since 2008 and caused no non-combatant casualty over the past two years. It rejected a general perception that thousands of civilians had died in drone strikes.