Noor Fatima: Peace icon

Noor Fatima's parents brought her to India after bus services resumed between India and Pakistan earlier this month.

Two weeks ago Noor successfully underwent surgery for two holes in her heart at a specialist cardiac hospital in the southern city of Bangalore.

She has been the focus of much media attention in India and offers of financial support poured in from across the country.

"It is a message of friendship," her father Nadeem Sajjad said as the family left the Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital.

"It all now depends on what the big people [governments] think."

Long journey home

Noor Fatima and her parents have flown back to the Indian capital, Delhi, from where they will catch the newly reintroduced bus service to Lahore in Pakistan on Friday.

The bus service had been suspended for 18 months

In the wake of Noor's case, the Indian Government announced that it would ease visa restrictions for Pakistani children requiring medical attention.

It also said that it would finance the travel, treatment and accommodation for a group of 20 sick Pakistani children.

Noor's father has also set up a friendship trust using money pledged by people in India to help other patients in need of heart care in India and Pakistan.

Another Pakistani child, eight-year-old Junaid Khalid has also recently been operated on at the same hospital as Noor.

The resumption of travel links has been one sign of improving relations between India and Pakistan, who cut off diplomatic and other ties after an attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001.

Delhi blamed the attack on Pakistan-backed militants and relations between the two countries fell to a new low.

But in April Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee offered a "hand of friendship" to Pakistan and the two countries have recently reappointed high commissioners to each others capitals.