The family of a 14-year-old boy badly burnt in a bomb blast are appealing for help to raise £9,000 so he can have a life-changing operation.

Waqas Saddique suffered burns on his arms and legs and cut veins after being caught by a terrorist car bomb in Kashmir in December 1999.

He desperately needed two operations costing more than £18,000 so he can have plastic surgery to carry out skin grafts on all four limbs.

The youngster spent three months in a Kashmir hospital where he was treated for burns and following an earlier appeal in the Telegraph & Argus he was able to have the first successful operation in August this year.

Now St James's University Hospital in Leeds has given him a date for the second operation which would restore the feeling in his fingers.

He would be able to have the operation in January or early February providing his family can raise the £9,000 costs of the operation.

Mushtaq Ahmed, Waqas's brother-in-law, paid for the youngster to come to England in February and has been looking after the teenager while the cash is raised.

"Waqas's family could not afford to pay for the operation in Kashmir and we have been trying to raise the money so he can carry on with his treatment in England," said Mr Ahmed, of Princeville Road, Bradford.

"The first operation was a success but now he needs to complete the treatment so he will be able to open his fingers. It will mean he can have a normal life again and go home.

"We have been relying on the support of family, friends and businesses to help us raise the money but we still need to raise another £8,000."

Waqas is receiving being treated at Jimmy's Hospital as a private patient as he is not a British native, but he is allow to stay in the country until his treatment has been completed.

Anyone wanting to help raise money for Waqas's second operation can contact Mr Ahmed on 0785 5244183 or (01274) 523762.