Islamabad, Oct 24 - With the Taliban allowed to grow unfettered for more than a decade, there is "no longer anything unexpected" about the terrorist acts ripping through Pakistan, an editorial in a leading English daily maintained Saturday, a day after 25 people were killed in a series of blasts across the country.

At the same time, it said the latest round of bombings had a "positive dimension".

"There is no longer anything unexpected about the terrorist attacks ripping through our country," The News said in an editorial headlined "Another day, another blast".

"But perhaps the latest rounds of bombings have a positive dimension," it said, adding: "They help lay out in the starkest terms the contours of the war we are fighting. This is a war for survival; it pitches the state of Pakistan and all those who represent it against people who seek its destruction. There no room for ambiguity and no possibility

of merely sitting on the fence.

"There is reason to believe it is this sense of divide, the doubt over whether or not the Taliban were our real enemies that allowed them over the past decade to grow in number and strength," the editorial contended.

Holding that the Pakistani government failed to go after the Taliban "when the task could have been far more easily accomplished than is the case now", the editorial said: "We were swayed in our resolve by those who insisted the militants presented no real threat; even that they were essentially good men and that our real fight lay with the US.

"We are now paying the price for holding such beliefs and for allowing them to shape policy. The elements within the establishment who propounded this point of view have a great deal to answer for. They can now make amends only by doing all that is possible to eliminate a ruthless enemy, before it destroys our nation and all that is good within it," the editorial maintained.

Twenty-five people were killed and 27 injured Friday in a series of blasts across Pakistan. Eighteen people died in a landmine explosion while seven were killed when a suicide bomber struck at an air force base in Attock district. Eight people were injured in a bombing outside a restaurant in Peshawar.

On Thursday, a Pakistani Army brigadier was shot dead while on Tuesday, six people, including three girls, were killed in a suicide bombing at the Islamic University here, the attack coming four days after the military launched a major offensive against the Taliban in the South Waziristan region along the border with Afghanistan.

On Oct 10, the Taliban laid a 22-hour siege to the Pakistani military headquarters in Rawalpindi, taking 39 officers and soldiers hostage before the attackers were overpowered. Five days later, the militants attacked three police establishments in Lahore. (IANS)