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Bruce Lee is alive, and he lives in Afghanistan!

Last updated on: December 12, 2014 10:58 IST

Abbas Alizada not only looks like kung Fu legend Bruce Lee, but has the skills to prove it too. And he has become an instant internet sensation.

The 20-year-old, now being called the ‘Afghan Bruce Lee’, is from an impoverished Afghan family of 10, and hopes that his sudden internet fame pulls him away from his war-torn country and poverty.

“I want to be a champion in my country and a Hollywood star. The destruction here saddens me, but it also inspires me,” he told Reuters in an interview.

His parents did not have enough money for him to study Wushu, but after, realising his potential, the school’s trainer agreed to teach him.

He is disdainful of the name Bruce Hazara as he is known by his friends because it points to his ethnicity, which, in a country like Afghanistan can mean the difference between life and death.

“Afghan Bruce Lee is just fine,” he says.

Alizada owes his rising fame to the fall of the Taliban government which had banned the internet, as well as TV and other forms of entertainment, until it was toppled by a United States invasion in 2001, following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

“The only news that comes from Afghanistan is about war; I am happy that my story is a positive one,” he told Reuters.

All photographs: Mohammad Ismail/Reuters