A silhouetted illustration of a man has noticeably gone missing from the Maldivian passport.

While the newly designed passports were released in January 2016, the first page has an image of a silhouette of a man, which was described as a depiction of the former President Mohamed Nasheed.

While the department of immigration had denied the reports, the illustration has suddenly gone missing.

Controller of Immigration and Emigration Mohamed Anwar said that there was “no particular reason” in their decision to bring the change to the first page of the passport.

The page now shows an illustration of the ‘China-Maldives Friendship Bridge’.

Noting that there had been ‘room to improve the security features’ of the passport, Anwar said the change was brought during that process.

Last year, calling on all “to immediately stop the affront to the passport”, immigration officials had threated to take legal action against those “who defame the Maldivian passport”.

While the new passport depicts Maldivian culture and traditions, the illustrations were drawn by local artist Hussain Ali Manik, and designed by German company Dermalog with over 30 security features.

Maldives is the first country in South Asia to introduce biometric e-passports and e-gate services.