More than half of the Indian girls would cancel their wedding if their would-be in-laws demand dowry, according to a new survey.

When single Indian women were asked in a survey by Shaadi.com about what they would do if they learnt about a dowry demand made to their parents, 51.4 per cent women said they would call off their wedding.

Another 48.6 per cent women said they would name and shame the would-be in-law’s family by publicly humiliating them, as per the survey.

The online poll received 5,680 responses from single Indians in the age group of 24 to 35 years.

When single Indian men were asked how dowry seekers should be treated, 59.8 per cent of them said such persons should be instantly jailed, while 40.2 per cent said those making the demand should be socially humiliated.

More than 75 per cent respondents felt dowry could be prevented, the survey said.
Commenting on the survey, Gourav Rakshit, COO of Shaadi.com said the website was working towards making India a dowry-free society. PTI

Pakistani police have detained the alleged Mumbai attacks mastermind in an unrelated kidnapping case, a day after a court ordered his release.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi has spent six years in jail awaiting trial for the 2008 attacks, in which 165 were killed.

The government has been fighting a court decision to grant him bail.

Indian officials say Mr Lakhvi led the Pakistani militant group that carried out the attack, and have reacted angrily to the decision to free him.

Mr Lakhvi is among seven suspects who have been in jail awaiting trial for six years. Nine others have been charged in absentia.

Pakistan has not convicted anyone suspected of planning the attacks.

On Tuesday, the authorities registered a case of abduction under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism law against Mr Lakhvi.

He was produced in a court amid tight security and later police took him into protective custody.

Analysts say the Pakistani government, which has promised to crack down on militancy, does not want Mr Lakhvi to be freed.

The government is challenging and earlier decision to grant him bail, and imposed a three-month detention order in an effort to keep him in prison.

But the Islamabad High Court quashed the detention order on Monday, forcing the authorities to bring new charges to keep him detained.

Mr Lakhvi was accused of heading the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for the Mumbai attacks.

The charges brought against Mr Lakhvi and other suspects were mainly based on a confession given by Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, the only gunman captured alive after the attacks.

India executed Qasab in 2012.

The attacks severely strained relations between India and Pakistan.

PTI

The time between Christmas and New Year can make soccer careers appear as transitory as the life of butterflies. Neil Warnock became the first manager to be fired in England’s Premier League this season when struggling Crystal Palace dismissed him on Saturday.

Fernando Torres, the Spanish striker, has finally been released from Chelsea, where his once prolific career had stalled and sputtered ever since he moved there in the transfer window of January 2011. He cost Chelsea a then-British record fee of 50 million pounds, or about $78 million, and he leaves for nothing.

Warnock, 66, is a veteran of the hire-and-fire game of team management. Torres, 30, is on a tortuous journey that ended back where he started, at his first love in soccer, Atlético Madrid.

– The Warnock situation has a simple arithmetic explanation. He was hired by Palace two days before this season began to fill the shoes of Tony Pulis, a coach who had turned around the south London team at this time a year ago.

The club was in peril of being dropped from the Premier League when Pulis, well known for his pragmatic ability to get the best out of limited playing resources, took on the task of saving the team. He made it solid on defense, quick on the break, and he gave players a belief in themselves.

Palace finished last season in the middle of the standings in the richest league in the world. The Eagles, as the team is known, had soared. And then, Pulis and the board fell out over the way forward — and Warnock was plucked from retirement to fill the void.

The bottom line is that Pulis has never been relegated with any team. Warnock has taken two clubs down, and sometimes battled back. Their roles had reversed. Last summer, Warnock sat in a TV studio, giving his comments on where other coaches were failing; now Pulis is broadcasting while he awaits the right job to re-enter the hire-and-fire game.

The time is ripe. January is the designated midseason window when clubs can transfer players in or out — and so a club that has no faith in the manager or head coach will dismiss him first rather than allow him to recruit players his successor may not approve. While the media (and the eager stock of unemployed coaches sitting in front of the microphones) speculate, Crystal Palace should already know whom it wants in place of Warnock.

Time is of the essence for Palace. Its team has won only three times all season long, and only once in the last dozen games. The numbers do not tell us everything about form, and if they did then Fernando Torres might already have found his game is up.

Torres has been in limbo for some considerable time. His continued…

Ahmedabad: A cinema hall in Ahmedabad screening the Aamir Khan-starrer PK was today vandalised allegedly by members of a right-wing group.

Around 40 people allegedly belonging to the Bajrang Dal, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s parent body – reportedly broke glass panes of the multiplex, demanding that the screening of the film be stopped. The group then vandalized another multiplex nearby which was also showing the film.

PK, which released on December 19 and has smashed several box-office records, has generated a huge controversy with several outfits demanding a ban on the movie, alleging that it hurts religious sentiments. Others have demanded the removal of certain scenes from the film to ensure communal harmony.

The criticism also spilled onto Twitter with the hashtag #BoycottPK which was promptly countered by the film’s supporters with the hashtag #WeSupportPK which was one of the top trends on the micro-blogging site.

The Censor Board has refused to delete scenes from the film, saying “it’s already out for public viewing.”

‘PK’, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, is a satire on India’s godmen and Aamir plays the lead role in it. The film also stars Anushka Sharma, Sanjay Dutt and Sushant Singh Rajput.