Jammu and Kashmir gets new police chief

By Indo-Asian News Service

Srinagar: Kuldeep Khuda, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, is the state's new director general of police (DGP).

The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet chaired here Tuesday by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The present DGP, Gopal Sharma, has been made security advisor to the chief minister.

Khuda, an IPS of the 1974 batch, is presently the additional DGP (intelligence). He was a top favourite for the assignment.

He is known to have given a new direction to intelligence gathering in the militancy-torn border state, which has been battling bloody separatist violence for the last 18 years.

P.S. Gill, another senior local IPS officer, who was also in the race for the top slot, has been elevated to DGP status and posted as DG (Transport).