Bengaluru: IPS Officer from Karnataka Savita Hande, presently serving as Senior UN Security Officer in Kabul, is in a safe zone and helping in evacuation.

A 1990-batch IPS officer and batch mate of ADGP (Railways) Bhaskar Rao and City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant, she was deployed to Kosovo in 2000 after being relieved from cadre and since then was interested in doing United Nations service.

“Savita is wedded to the spirit of humanity. Despite a grave danger to her personal security and safety and being a woman, being an Indian woman, she is discharging her duties in hostile territory. She is our batch mate and cadre mate from Karnataka… had she continued here, she would have been an Additional DGP. She is doing great work,” Bhaskar Rao told reporters.

“I am proud as well as worried for Savita amid a handful of brave UN personnel who have chosen to stay in Kabul, defending and ensuring humanitarian support amidst mayhem. We appreciate her courage and commitment to humanity,” he added.

After she was deployed to Kosovo in 2000, she has been posted in Jakarta, East Timor, South Sudan and New York, and now she is in Kabul.

“She has messaged that she is in Kabul. She has done a lot of evacuation and is striving to save the United Nation’s property and maintain peace in a hostile situation,” Bhaskar Rao said.

 Savita Hande has served in various capacities in Karnataka before getting deputed to central services in 2000. She was Additional Superintendent of Police in Bidar and Holenarasipur and served as Superintendent of Police in Udupi and Hassan. She has also participated in operations against forest  brigand Veerappan.