PM Modi gets election boost with UN sanction against India's 'enemy No. 1'

Political strategists said the Masood Azhar issue could further help the BJP to deflect opposition criticism focused on a shortage of jobs and weak farm prices.

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The BJP, political analysts and even the main opposition Congress party acknowledged that getting Azhar on the list, which places a travel ban and an asset freeze on him, was a big victory for India and its diplomacy.

Reuters

3 min read Last Updated : May 02 2019 | 9:16 AM IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election bid received a big fillip on Wednesday after a UN Security Council committee blacklisted Masood Azhar, the head of a Pakistan-based militant group, a decade after New Delhi first demanded such an action.

Azhar’s Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in February that killed 40 Indian paramilitary police. JeM was also blamed for a high-profile attack on India’s parliament in 2001, and local media often calls Azhar the country’s “enemy No. 1”.

In response to the suicide attack in Kashmir, which is also claimed by Pakistan, Modi sent warplanes