Ajit Kumar Doval, former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief, has been appointed as the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The appointment of the 69-year-old former head of IB to the post of NSA is one of the first key appointments made by the new BJP Government.

Doval is an IPS officer of the 1968 batch from the Kerala cadre. He was the first police officer to be awarded the Kirti Chakra, a military medal awarded for valour for courageous action away from the field of battle. He served in the Indian mission in Pakistan for six years and was a key member of the Indian team that negotiated with Pakistani terrorists who hijacked an Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar in 1999.

Doval is perceived as a legendary figure in intelligence circles for his role in combating militants and terrorists in Mizoram, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. He led the operation to rescue Romanian diplomat Liviu Radu after he was kidnapped by Sikh terrorists in 1991 and was also involved in Operation Black Thunder which was carried out to flush out militants from the Golden Temple. He also headed the Multi Agency Centre and Joint Task Force on Intelligence before retiring from service in January 2005.

Before taking up the post of NSA, Doval was the Director of the Vivekananda International Foundation, a think tank. He regularly contributed articles for newspapers and delivered lectures on security and foreign policy issues.

He succeeds former career diplomat Shivshankar Menon to become the fifth person to hold the post of NSA. The NSA’s post was created in 1998.