By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi : In a significant announcement, the Ministry of external affairs on Friday issued a press release announcing the name of Ahmad Javed, the current commissioner of Mumbai Police, as the next Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Centre has been on the hunt to identify the right candidate to represent India in Saudi Arabia, the country with the largest Indian passport holders outside India. But a shortage of senior Muslim officers in the Indian Foreign Services meant it took months in order to find a replacement for Hamid Ali Rao, who retired as the country’s envoy to Saudi Arabia in April 2015, reported the Hindustan Times.
Ahmad Javed (Photo Credit: http://newsr.in)
Ahmad Javed, a 1980 batch IPS officer, had replaced Rakesh Maria as Commissioner of Mumbai Police earlier this year in what looked like a hurried decision taken in the midst of the Sheena Bora murder probe.
Known as ‘King’ in police wireless code, Javed was born into a royal family and graduated from Delhi’s prestigious St Stephen’s. Joining the Indian Police Service in 1980, Javed has never been a stranger for the rough and tumble of Mumbai’s crime fighting force. The city saw bomb blasts at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar during his tenure as additional CP (law and order). He also served the Delhi Police between 1983 and 1985, when the capital burned during the anti-Sikh riots in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
Javed is also considered to be close to the Maharashtra director-general of police Sanjeev Dayal who has a say in government postings.
Earlier, Julio Francis Ribeiro, a Maharashtra cadre IPS officer also served as the Indian Ambassador to Romania from 1989 until 1993.