DUBAI – Prominent Islamic scholar Maulana Tariq Jameel, who was offloaded from a flight to Canada on Wednesday has finally flown to Toronto on Friday morning.
According to the details, Maulana Jameel along with his wife and son were re-booked on Emirates flights, which left Dubai for Toronto at 9.55am. Initially, he was barred from travelling to Canada due to security clearance issues.
“Everything went smoothly and Maulana Jameel left for Canada without any issue,” said one of his close friends.
Explaining the issue of delay in security clearance, he said that Maulana Jameel was offloaded on Wednesday from a flight to Toronto because he could not get security clearance until the departure of the flight.
“We came to know that the delay in security clearance was due to change of his passport. Maulana got his new passport after the issuance of Canadian visa and that led to delay in security clearance because passport number was not matching,” he said, adding that the airline staff was very cooperative.
Earlier, Maulana Jameel categorically refuted media reports that he was going to Canada with cricketer Shahid Afridi to attend a fundraising event for Afridi’s charity foundation.
“Media reports based on a tweet by Afridi’s friend are wrong, as Maulana Jameel met Afridi only at the airport and he has no plans to attend his charity event in Toronto,” said one of his close friends who was at the airport to see him off.
An airline official on condition of anonymity clarified that it was quite normal for passengers to get offloaded from Canada and US bound flights due to delays in security clearance.
