India’s foreign office in New Delhi’s South Block has sought the Bangladesh government’s permission to let Indian citizens visit Bangladesh with handwritten India-Bangladesh (Special) passports.

The request has come even though the Indian government had decided to discontinue handwritten passports in accordance with recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on November 26, 2015.

The Indian foreign ministry has sought the permission of the Bangladesh authorities through a letter to the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi on May 1 to let Indians visit Bangladesh bearing a total of 55,876 hand-written India-Bangladesh (Special) passports, sources in the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) said.

After receiving South Block’s letter, the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi forwarded it to the ministry of foreign affairs and they, in turn, forwarded it to the home ministry for its opinion, the sources added.

It has been learnt that the home ministry has asked the Director General of the DIP to give their views on the issue.

In the letter, the Indian foreign ministry has urged Bangladesh let 55,876 Indians holding hand-written India-Bangladesh (Special) passports to visit Bangladesh till the documents were digitised.

When contacted, DIP Director General Major General Md Masud Rezwan told The Independent that there was no way of allowing Indian citizens holding handwritten India-Bangladesh (Special) passports to visit the country as per the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

“We have already stopped to use handwritten passports for visits abroad by Bangladeshi citizens as per the ICAO guideline and we cannot deviate from the guideline,” he said.

According to the ICAO instruction, the authorities’ concerned stopped the use of handwritten passports from November 24, 2015, as the use of machine readable passports (MRP) had been made compulsory.

The ICAO had set November 24, 2015 as the deadline making the MRP mandatory for Bangladeshis travelling abroad. The rule was applicable to nationals of all countries, including Bangladeshis and Indians.

The Indian government, too, had decided to discontinue handwritten passports in accordance with recommendations of the ICAO to incorporate biometric data in the machine readable travel documents on November 26, 2015.