LOS ANGELES, May 18: US federal agents late Tuesday arrested a Pakistani-born man for allegedly falsely claiming that a terrorist was planning to blow up the British consulate in Toronto, officials said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Bukhtiar Abdul Latif Katchi, 34, in Los Angeles on charges of maliciously and falsely claiming that an Al Qaeda operative was about to blow up the mission in Canada earlier this month.

“He called police in New Jersey and stated that an individual who was a member of Al Qaeda was planning to blow up the British consulate in Toronto,” FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told AFP.

“An investigation identified the caller as Katchi, who had a longstanding dispute over property in Pakistan with the individual whom he implicated in the alleged plot,” she said.

Katchi allegedly made the bomb hoax call from a telephone box in Los Angeles to police in the New Jersey town where the man he implicated lived.

The suspect had allegedly made other earlier allegations against the same man, who is believed to be a relative of Katchi, Eimiller said.

The suspect allegedly told FBI agents that he placed the call on May 8 after seeing news coverage of two pipe bombs that exploded outside the British consulate in New York City.

Katchi was due to appear in a US federal court in Los Angeles on Tuesday after charges were filed against him in the eastern state of New Jersey.

If convicted, he could receive up to 10 years in prison, according to Eimiller.—AFP