US News

‘TERRORIST’ TAPE ; BUSTED QNS. MAN VIDEOED TOURIST SITES

A videotape made by a Queens man the feds suspect was casing potential terror targets featured city landmarks such as the Museum of Natural History and Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel, The Post has learned.

Between last May and June, Kamran Akhtar shot the 60 minutes of footage he titled “New York and the Museum of Natural History” on the Canon Mini-DV camcorder he bought last November and apparently took with him everywhere.

Akhtar, 35, is the Pakistani national who sparked terror fears when cops in Charlotte, N.C., found him videotaping the 60-story Bank of America building last month.

The feds remain unconvinced that Akhtar – who has $80,000 stashed in bank accounts – is just a hardworking, thrifty illegal immigrant.

As The Post was viewing the tape on Friday in the cramped one-bedroom apartment in Elmhurst Akhtar shares with his wife and three children, FBI agents raided a photo shop where he last worked off the books, sources said.

On the tape, which is not one of the seven that is being analyzed by the feds, Akhtar shows his daughters in Central Park. He repeatedly drifts up to film surrounding buildings and skyscrapers.

At Coney Island, he filmed Nathan’s, the Cyclone roller coaster and other landmarks. He also taped the outside and inside of the Museum of Natural History.

Tourist-like images of Akhtar’s wife, Sumaira, 34, and three young children appeared throughout.

The footage on the tape shown the Post lacked telltale signs of terror surveillance: close-ups of security cameras, entrances and exits, guard posts or other safety measures.

“If he was a terrorist, I would never defend him,” said Akhtar’s brother, Irfan, a doctor.

“I want my brother to be out and to raise his head in front of the people.”

To that end, The Post convinced Irfan to review the tape – which neither the family nor the FBI had seen.

The tape begins with one of Akhtar’s daughters’ fourth birthday last May. That’s followed by a trip to Central Park, where the immigrant mostly trained the lens on his daughters playing.

Next came a family trip to Coney Island, in which the Pakistani native filmed his children on the rides for roughly 23 minutes, occasionally taking in the parachute jump.

At one point, he lingers on a large Department of Environmental Protection ship as it passes.

At the Museum of Natural History, Akhtar filmed exhibits and his children.

The videotape was one of several left behind by FBI agents last Tuesday after the family allowed agents to search their apartment. Agents took seven other tapes, mostly of the family’s July trip to Las Vegas, Irfan Akhtar said.

After bringing his family back to New York, Akhtar went on a bus trip to visit a cousin in Texas.

It was his filming while alone that put him in the feds’ cross hairs. During a stop in Charlotte three weeks ago, he was detained by police while videotaping the sites.

Questioned about his immigration status, Akhtar lied about having a green card. He was found to have two identities.

Further investigation showed that he had videotaped a highly guarded dam while in Texas.

The feds are also questioning how an unemployed man had $80,000 in the bank, and why he used the alias Kamran Shaikh.

Last week, a team of FBI agents in New York grilled family members, giving them polygraph tests, and began probing Akhtar’s bank accounts.

Agents also raided a Manhattan photo shop where Akhtar had worked off the books. By week’s end, the feds had not unearthed anything linking him to terrorism, but continued to hold him in Charlotte on immigration charges, for which he faces deportation.