New Delhi, July 28: IPS officer V K Johri has been appointed as the next Director General (DG) of country's largest border guarding force, BSF, an official order said Sunday. The order has been issued by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) that is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has Home Minister Amit Shah as its member.

Johri, a 1984-batch Indian Police Service officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, is presently serving as the Special Secretary in the external intelligence agency RAW, under the Cabinet Secretariat. He will take over the charge of the Border Security Force from incumbent Rajni Kanti Mishra, who retires on August 31. Indo-Bangla Border: BSF Troopers Thwarting Illegal Cattle Trade Being Targeted Using Crude Bombs

The order also stated that Johri has been appointed as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Union home ministry with "immediate effect." Johri will attain superannuation in September, 2020, the order stated.

The BSF, with a present strength of about 2.5 lakh personnel, is country's largest border guarding force and is tasked to secure two of India's most important and sensitive fronts with Pakistan and Bangladesh. The two other border guarding forces are ITBP (China) and SSB (Nepal and Bhutan).