Pakistani heart op girl 'stable'

Fatima came to India with her parents last Friday

A Pakistani girl, who has become the icon of renewed ties between arch rivals India and Pakistan, is "stable" and recovering well after undergoing open heart surgery in Bangalore.

Two-year-old Noor Fatima has been in intensive care since the five-hour operation on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital in the southern Indian city said Fatima was "doing fine".

The success of the operation has inspired her parents to set up a trust fund for needy children requiring heart surgery in India and Pakistan.

Fatima has been at the centre of a media frenzy since she was brought to India on board the freshly resumed India-Pakistan bus service last week.

The service marked a thaw in relations between the two nuclear neighbours after an 18-month stand-off.

Cash offers

Doctors in Pakistan had advised the girl's parents to take her to Bangalore for the complicated surgery because of the superior facilities there.

The bus service had been suspended for 18 months

The image of Fatima in her mother's arms was splashed across television channels and newspapers in India as the little girl's plight captured the imagination of many.

Hundreds of Indians have offered to donate money to help pay for Fatima's treatment, doctors at the hospital said on Monday.

It also said children, social activists and ordinary people were pouring into the hospital to convey their best wishes and pray for Fatima.

Her father, Nadeem Sajjad, said the 50,000 rupees ($1,000) he received from a philanthropist towards medical expenses would be donated to the new trust, which will be managed by a rotary association.

The association is also contributing 50,000 rupees to the fund, which will help underprivileged children from both countries receive heart care.

Cardiac specialists

Fatima's surgery was advanced by a day because she had developed complications. She had two holes in her heart.

Mr Sajjad said: "We feel comfortable bringing her to India because culturally it is similar to Pakistan."

The Narayana Hrudayalaya specialises in cardiac care for children and is the only one of its kind in South Asia.

Hospital staff say they routinely treat patients from Pakistan as well as neighbouring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

The Sajjads' travel to India was only made possible after the resumption of a bus service between the Pakistan city of Lahore and the Indian capital Delhi.

With rail and air services suspended, travellers had to make a long and expensive detour via Dubai to reach their destination.

"This is a good first step and we hope it will translate into something bigger and a real rapprochement is possible between the two countries," Mr Sajjad told the BBC.

The bus service was suspended after an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001.

India blamed the attack on Pakistani-backed militants.