A disfigured 14-year-old boy faces a life begging on the streets of Kashmir unless funds for a pioneering operation can be found soon.

Waqas Saddique suffered horrific burns and nerve damage when a terrorist car bomb exploded outside a mosque in his village in 1999, killing 13 people and injuring 26.

His family brought him to Bradford in the hope they could raise £9,000 for surgery to help him regain the use of his right hand.

So far two operations have been cancelled because they have only raised £2,100.

Without the treatment it is feared Waqas will not be able to find employment when he returns home to his village and could face begging for his living on the streets.

He is staying with his sister Yasmeen Ahmed and brother-in-law Mushtaq at Princeville Street, Bradford.

Mr Ahmed said: "Waqas is being very brave but he is missing his family.

"They could not afford to pay for the operation in Kashmir and we have been trying to raise money so he can carry on with treatment in England.

"This second operation would give him back the use of his hand and repair some of the burns.

"He nearly died but now we can give him another chance. Unless we do something for him now he will be disabled for the rest of his life."

Waqas spent six months in a Kashmir hospital after the bomb exploded as he left a mosque.

He is being treated at St James's Hospital, Leeds, and has been given permission to stay in the country until his treatment has been completed.

He has already undergone treatment which involved taking nerves from his legs and implanting them in his arm. A second operation would repair his fingers.

Anyone who wants to help the appeal should contact Mr Ahmed on (0785) 5244183 or send a cheque, made payable to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, to Waqas Saddique, c/o Simon Kaye, St James's Hospital, Beckett Street, Leeds.