The government has reinstated ‘except Israel’ inscription in Bangladeshi passports amid countrywide Anti-Israel protests for killing innocent civilians in Palestine’s Gaza strip.
The Security Services Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs asked the director general of the Department of Immigration and Passports to reinstate the inscription, according to an order of the Division signed by its deputy secretary Nilima Afroz on April 7.
The order came to light on Sunday, a day after ‘March for Gaza’ in Dhaka in solidarity with Palestine where thousands of people including leaders of different political parties, social organisations and Islamic scholars joined and a declaration read out there urged the government to reinstate ‘except Israel’ inscription in Bangladeshi passports.
Nilima Afroz told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that they had sent the order to the director general of the DIP on the date of the issuance.
Copies of the order were also sent to the home adviser’s private secretary and the private secretary to the home ministry’s senior secretary.
In 2021, the Awami League regime removed the ‘except Israel’ inscription from Bangladeshi passports. The incident drew criticism from cross section of people.
Since then, Bangladeshi passports did not bear the sentence ‘This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel’.
The then government, however, explained that Bangladesh’s position about Israel would remain unchanged.
Bangladesh does not have any diplomatic relations with Israel.
