New Delhi, Oct. 10 : In the wake of Friday’s suicide attack that killed more than 40 people in Peshawar, Pakistan has vowed to launch a military offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan at the soonest, but people in this region are equally exasperated with both the government and the Taliban.

A few hours after the blast Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik had said: “We have no other option but to carry out an operation in South Waziristan. All roads are leading to South Waziristan. We will have to proceed.”

However, ethnic Pashtuns - who have long witnessed the Taliban insurgency and the Pakistan Government’s ineffective response to that - are now fed up.

“Earlier there may have been some sympathies toward these Taliban or Al Qaeda, but a reaction against them has been emerging,” the Christian Science Monitor quoted Ijaz Khattak, a professor of international relations at Peshawar University, as saying.

“There is a general view coming forth –‘How do we get rid of these people?’ People are losing confidence in the state''s ability to provide them any protection,” he added.

Many of the Peshawar’s famed carpet merchants are planning to pack up their shops and leave due to government’s inability to protect them from the Taliban.

"There''s a general feeling of exasperation. They are fed up with being fined for short beards…. The professional class are fed up with people back in their own tribe who they grew up with and who are now running around (with guns),” Prato was quoted as saying.

According to experts, the Pakistan military might be talking about an offensive but people on the ground see no build-up of forces, which is deepening their skepticism. (ANI)