New Delhi | Senior IPS officer Ravi Sinha was on Monday appointed as the chief of the country's external spy agency RAW, succeeding Samant Kumar Goel who will complete his four-year tenure on June 30, an official order said.

Sinha, a 1988 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre, is currently Special Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved Sinha's appointment as Secretary, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for a tenure of two years, the order issued by the Ministry of Personnel said.

Sinha has been with the prestigious intelligence agency for over two decades.

He was heading the operational wing of RAW before his promotion. Considered a neighbourhood specialist, the officer has worked extensively in Jammu and Kashmir, northeast and other countries.

He takes over at a time when Sikh extremism is being propagated from some countries.

Sinha's predecessor Goel was appointed RAW chief for two years in June 2019. He was later given two extensions of one year each in 2021 and June 2022.

Goel, an expert on matters related to Jammu and Kashmir, is believed to have played a key role in planning the February 2019 surgical strike in Pakistan's Balakot.

The surgical strike was carried out to avenge the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed by a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

In response to the attack, the Indian Air Force had struck a JeM terrorist training camp in Balakot on February 26, 2019.