NYC terror suspect prayed at mosque probed after 9/11

Manhattan truck terrorist Sayfullo Saipov prayed at the same New Jersey mosque that was the target of a controversial NYPD surveillance operation following 9/11, according to neighbors.

Saipov, who allegedly killed eight and injured 12 when he drove a rented truck down a lower Manhattan bike path, worshiped at the Omar Masjid mosque around the corner from his Paterson home, residents said.

Slavo Petrov, who lives around the corner from the Getty Avenue mosque, said he had seen Saipov going into the house of worship, according to NJ.com.

Another neighbor told The Post that they had seen Saipov, who lives around the corner on Genessee Avenue, coming and going from the mosque as well.

A controversial 2007 NYPD report noted that only about nine Uzbeks worshiped at the large, mostly Middle Eastern mosque.

In 2006, the NYPD began secretly recording congregants’ license plates and snapping their photos.

They even sent in “mosque crawlers” to eavesdrop on conversations going on inside Omar Masjid.

It was part of a larger surveillance operation on metro-area mosques following 9/11.

The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the city in 2013 over the spying, which it claimed was done “without any suspicion of wrongdoing.”

According to a settlement reached in March of this year, race, religion or ethnicity can no longer be motivating factors in the department’s decision to run surveillance operations.

The agreement also created a civilian position to act as a watchdog against unwarranted spying by the NYPD.