July 16, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 15, 1424

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BANGALORE, July 15: A Pakistani girl, who has come to symbolise the new thaw in ties between rivals India and Pakistan, underwent successful heart surgery on Tuesday amid a national outpouring of goodwill for the two-year-old baby.

Indian doctors operated to mend holes in the heart of Noor Fatima, who on Friday travelled to India for the life-saving surgery on the first bus service revived after 18 months between the two neighbouring countries.

The six-hour operation in this southern city of Bangalore started at 7:00 am (0630am PST) at the privately-run Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital near Bangalore.

“The two-year-old baby had four abnormalities in her heart which included two large holes and defective valves,” said cardiac surgeon Devi Shetty.

“The operation was successful and all the holes have been plugged and now the baby has a happy heart as it has responded well to the surgery,” Shetty said. “No operation on a baby is easy. Initially we scheduled it for Wednesday but the kid was fine so we did not wait.”

Fatima’s father Nadeem Sajjad, 35, told AFP that he and his wife, Tayyeba Sajjad, 28, had been on tenterhooks during the surgery conducted by a team of surgeons and cardiologists.

“It was a tough time for us,” the father said, adding that he was relieved when he saw the “doctor coming out with a smiling face.”

The Sajjad couple has been in the limelight since they came along with 32 other Pakistani passengers on board last week’s bus from Lahore to New Delhi.

The Sajjads said they were overwhelmed by the good wishes they had received in India for Fatima’s surgery.

“We are grateful to India for the support we received,” the visibly-emotional Sajjad said.

“Thank God, we did not need the money that was offered to us. But we think the money can be used to fund a trust to treat poor children of both countries,” he said.

The Hrudayalaya facility charges 125,000 rupees for heart surgery, half the amount asked by other Indian hospitals.

“The love and affection we received should now form the bulwark for a new India-Pakistan relationship,” said Fatima’s father, who works for a state-run fertiliser firm in Pakistan.

Fatima’s mother was euphoric.

“The greatest news for us is that my baby has got a new life and she will now live a healthy life,” said mother Tayyeba, adding that after Fatima recovered she hoped to take her child to see the Mughal-built Taj Mahal.

In Bangalore, children Tuesday lined the streets with placards reading “Get Well Soon!”, and total strangers gave flowers to Fatima’s parents at the hospital.

“I am overwhelmed by the hospitality I got... We are feeling at home even though we are 4,000kms away,” said Sajjad

“Throughout the day we received telephone calls from unknown Indians who told us they were praying for our kid. We have been bombarded with good wishes, greetings cards and flowers for the last two days,” he said.

“So many Indians prayed for us and I do not know who was a Hindu or who was a Muslim,” he said, without referring to the traditional rivalries between the two communities.

“I will carry the message of friendship. We need to live in peace in South Asia,” Sajjad said.

Surgeon Shetty said one out of 140 children born in the world suffered from an ailment such as Fatima’s and urged both New Delhi and Islamabad to operate the cross-border bus more frequently.

“There are about 30 children this year who came to our hospital via Dubai” as there are no flights from Pakistan, Shetty said.

“A baby born in Karachi has to travel to Dubai and then to Bangalore which is a long and difficult route,” he said.

The government of the state of Karnataka, of which Bangalore is the capital, meanwhile, offered 10,000 rupees for Fatima’s treatment, which is not currently available in Pakistan.—AFP