SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Pakistan Authorities 'Attempting to Bury' Info on Brit's Blasphemy Shooting
The Pakistani authorities are attempting to suppress details of an official investigation into the shooting of Mohammed Asghar, it's emerged, amid growing calls for the release of the mentally-ill British grandfather.
Mr Asghar, a 70-year-old British citizen, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was given a death sentence for blasphemy in Pakistan in 2010. He was targeted two weeks ago by a police officer while on death row in Adiala, a maximum-security jail in Rawalpindi. Since the shooting, Mr Asghar has been hospitalised.
WASHINGTON
The Pakistani authorities are attempting to suppress details of an official investigation into the shooting of Mohammed Asghar, it's emerged, amid growing calls for the release of the mentally-ill British grandfather.
Mr Asghar, a 70-year-old British citizen, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was given a death sentence for blasphemy in Pakistan in 2010. He was targeted two weeks ago by a police officer while on death row in Adiala, a maximum-security jail in Rawalpindi. Since the shooting, Mr Asghar has been hospitalised.
Today it was revealed that the authorities in Punjab province, where Mr Asghar is being held, have refused requests by Mr Asghar's lawyers to access the results of an investigation into the shooting, as well as information relating to medical assessments of him since the incident. That information could support arguments that Mr Asghar's sentence is illegal on the grounds of his mental illness.
The refusal has added to concerns voiced by Mr Asghar's family that he has little prospect of fair treatment or protection while he remains in Pakistan. Violent attacks by extremists on people accused of blasphemy, including senior political figures, are common in the country.
This Friday (17th), Mr Asghar's daughter Jasmine will deliver to 10 Downing Street a petition of nearly 70,000 signatures calling on Prime Minister David Cameron to do all he can to bring Mr Asghar home to the UK. At a meeting today with Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond, the family asked him to urge the Prime Minister to intervene in the case.
Commenting, Kate Higham, an investigator at Reprieve said: "The fact that the local authorities in Pakistan are unwilling to share any meaningful information about this incident leaves question marks hanging around their commitment to ensuring both accountability and Mr Asghar's ongoing security. This is simply unacceptable. Mr Asghar is an ageing, seriously ill man who should never have been sentenced in the first place. The British Government must redouble its efforts to ensure that Mr Asghar is returned home to his family in Edinburgh, before it's too late."
Reprieve is a UK-based human rights organization that uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantanamo Bay.
LATEST NEWS
Footage From Phone of ICE Agent Who Shot and Killed Renee Good Released
The video comes "as close as you can get to conclusively disproving" the Trump administration's claims about Renee Good, said one observer.
Jan 09, 2026
WARNING: The following article includes graphic footage of the shooting that some people may find disturbing...
New footage taken from the phone of the federal immigration agent who killed Renee Good was released on Friday, and it offers the closest view so far of the deadly shooting that took place on Wednesday in Minneapolis.
In a video first published by Alpha News, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross is seen exiting his vehicle and approaching Good's car.
As Ross circles the car while filming it with his phone, Good can be seen smiling at him and gently taunting him.
"It's fine, dude," she says as Ross passes by her on the driver's side window. "I'm not mad at you."
As Ross continues circling the car and captures its license plate, Good's wife, Becca Good, approaches him and tells him that "we don't change our license plates every morning, just so you know."
Becca Good also asks Ross if he was "going to come at us," and then recommends that he "go get yourself some lunch, big boy."
Shortly after this, other immigration officers begin moving aggressively toward Good's car, instructing her to exit the vehicle.
After this, Good can be seen turning her steering wheel completely to the right, which was away from the location where Ross was standing, and trying to drive away.
As the car drives past Ross, it is unclear if it makes any contact with him, although he remains on his feet the entire time and is able to take out his weapon and fire multiple shots at the vehicle.
A man can be heard calling Good a "fucking bitch" as her car crashes into a phone pole.
BREAKING: Alpha News has obtained cellphone footage showing perspective of federal agent at center of ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis pic.twitter.com/p2wks0zew0
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) January 9, 2026
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, argued on Bluesky that the video is "about as close as you can get to conclusively disproving the Trump [administration's] claims that she deliberately attempted to run down the officer."
Reichlin-Melnick cautioned, however, that this does not mean that prosecutors will be able to prove that Ross was guilty of murder when he opened fire on Good.
"The threshold for when police officers are allowed to use force is very low, so I'm not going to offer a definitive opinion," he explained. "And yes; what the law permits and what is justified are two different things entirely."
Appearing on MS Now, former FBI agent Michael Feinberg said that Ross' decision to film Good's vehicle with his phone while approaching her car was "the height of unprofessionalism."
"Why on Earth is a law enforcement officer filming an interaction with a civilian on his cellphone?" he asked. "They're not influencers, they're not social media posters. If you're there to do a job as an agent of the federal government, do the job. You don't need to be making content in the midst of it."
MSNBC's ex-FBI guest just dismissed a vehicular assault on ICE agents as "minor annoyance" and "sass" from a "lightly combative" activist.
In reaction to new video of the Minnesota shooting of anti-ICE activist Renee Good, Michael Feinberg calls it "law enforcement officers… pic.twitter.com/Gv5XL9B5CZ
— Media Lies (@MediasLies) January 9, 2026
Independent journalist Radley Balko noted that Alpha News, which first obtained the video, "is a far-right site run by the wife of the former head of the Minneapolis police union."
"Whoever leaked this to them thinks it makes Ross look good," Balko wrote. "Which is just astonishing."
Vice President JD Vance nonetheless declared in a post on X that the video showed "the reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self-defense," even though the video makes it clear that Good was turning the car away from where Ross was standing.
Vance has also falsely claimed that ICE agents have "absolute immunity," which has been rebuked by legal experts including Reichlin-Melnick.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Don't Hide': Minnesota Officials Demand Access to Probe of ICE Killing
"If you feel that the ICE agent operated within the law, then let there be an investigation so that that can be revealed," said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
Jan 09, 2026
Top Minnesota officials are demanding that the Trump administration stop their efforts to "hide" evidence in the probe of an immigration agent's killing of 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis earlier this week, which has been met with outrage in the community and demonstrations across the country.
After initially saying that it was cooperating with local law enforcement to investigate the killing, the FBI said Thursday that it assumed sole responsibility for the probe, which the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said left them without access to evidence needed to carry out a full investigation.
At a press conference on Friday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who demanded after the shooting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "get the fuck out of Minneapolis," said that the Trump administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi's Department of Justice were seeking to commandeer the investigation because they "have already come to a conclusion" that the ICE officer who shot Good, identified Thursday as Johnathan Ross, should not face criminal charges.
The federal government has claimed that Ross acted in self-defense, shooting Good as she attempted to ram him with her car. But video evidence contradicts this version of events, showing her attempting to avoid hitting the agent, and that he fired the fatal shots into her window from the car's side.
Members of the administration have justified Good's killing repeatedly with attacks on her character. Within hours of the shooting, President Donald Trump referred to Good, without a shred of evidence, as a "professional agitator" who "violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” Ross. The video shows that Ross actually walked away from the incident unscathed.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem later described Good as a "domestic terrorist," while Vice President JD Vance degraded her as a "far-left... lunatic."
"From the very beginning, they're calling the victim a domestic terrorist. They're calling the actions of the agent involved some form of defensive posture," Frey said. "We know that they've already determined much of the investigation."
"If you've got nothing to hide from, then don't hide from it," he added. "Include local experts in the process. We've got nothing to hide from here. All we want in Minneapolis is justice and the truth."
Jason Chavez, a member of the Minneapolis City Council representing the area where Good was shot, noted that contrary to the administration's claim that Good attempted to run over agents, she could be heard shouting "I'm pulling out" before her car was surrounded.
"The video that we have all seen... does not match the false narrative from the federal government," said Chavez, who described Good as "a mother, a wife, and a beloved community member, not a domestic terrorist."
Noem has asserted that Minnesota officials "don't have any jurisdiction in this investigation," while Vance has dubiously claimed that federal agents have "absolute immunity" from prosecution.
Minnesota's Democratic attorney general, Keith Ellison, however, argued on Friday that, given the nature of the incident, the state should be in charge of the investigation.
"This is clearly a homicide. And because of that, the states, traditionally, historically, have had priority and jurisdiction over these kinds of matters," Ellison said in an interview with Democracy Now! "It’s certainly the right thing for local authorities, state authorities, to be intimately involved in conducting this investigation."
"My thought is: What are you hiding?" he continued. "I mean, if you feel that the ICE agent operated within the law, then let there be an investigation so that that can be revealed."
Legal experts have said that Minnesota can investigate and prosecute Ross. Bryna Godar, a staff attorney at the State Democracy Research Initiative, wrote in a piece for Slate on Wednesday:
Contrary to recent assertions from some federal officials, states can prosecute federal officers for violating state criminal laws, and there is precedent for that.
Although federal officers do have immunity in some circumstances, that protection applies only if their actions were authorized under federal law and “necessary and proper” in fulfilling federal duties. When federal officers violate federal law or act unreasonably when carrying out their duties, they can face state charges.
States have a long history of prosecuting federal officials for allegedly using excessive force on the job. And when federal courts agree that the force may not have been legally justified, they have allowed the state prosecution to proceed.
Good was shot shortly after the Trump administration deployed around 2,000 federal agents to Minneapolis. On the day of the shooting, agents were also filmed pepper-spraying students during a raid at a Minneapolis high school, leading it and other schools in the area to cancel classes for the remainder of the week.
"We need a couple things here," said Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. "We need Minnesota to carry out this investigation, to make sure that the professionals at the BCA and that local law enforcement, who’s in charge of law enforcement, make sure we do the investigation, and then to pull back this unnecessary surge."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who has been floated as a possible successor after Walz announced earlier this week that he would not seek a third term as governor, joined Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) to send a letter to Bondi, calling on her to cooperate with state authorities.
The US senators said the administration’s decision to freeze out state law enforcement "raises serious questions about its objectivity, particularly after administration officials have made statements that conflict with the video and other evidence that has already become public."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Reign of Terror': ICE Builds Appalling Record of Killings, Beatings, Kidnappings, and More
"We just saw them murder an American citizen in cold blood, in the street," said US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "This is an agency that must be reined in."
Jan 09, 2026
Federal immigration enforcement agents, unleashed and emboldened by President Donald Trump, have been rampaging through the streets of cities across the United States for months, racking up an appalling record of abuses and alleged crimes, including kidnapping, beatings, and murder.
Such abuses have targeted, but haven't been limited to, undocumented immigrants. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent's killing of Renee Good, a 37-year-old American citizen and mother of three, earlier this week called greater attention to the agency's lawless behavior, enabled by an administration whose number-two official—Vice President JD Vance—falsely insists that federal immigration officers have "absolute immunity" from prosecution.
"Out of control" were the words lawmakers, advocacy groups, experts, and community members used to describe ICE's conduct in the wake of Good's killing.
Just 24 hours later, Border Patrol agents shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon, heightening nationwide outrage over the Trump administration's onslaught against undocumented immigrants, US citizens, and those protesting the presence of ICE agents, who are often masked and dressed in military fatigues.
Seemingly, nowhere is safe; ICE has raided houses of worship, schools, hotels, restaurants, farms, and retail stores.
"Communities across the state have been terrorized by masked, armed agents who are indiscriminately and aggressively harassing and kidnapping individuals at school, at work, on the streets, and in their homes," the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota said Thursday.
“I’m literally a U.S. citizen!”
Racial profiling is all they do pic.twitter.com/KV0S9AVa6U
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) January 8, 2026
US Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) wrote on social media following the shootings in Portland on Thursday that "ICE has done nothing to keep our communities safer."
"ICE agents are terrorizing folks in Oregon and across the country," he added. "I’m demanding full accountability—an investigation that involves Oregon officials—and ICE to immediately end these dangerous operations in Oregon."
Others have echoed Merkley's demand that ICE immediately exit cities across the US amid mounting abuses, documented by local and national media outlets, watchdog organizations, and eyewitnesses in the months since Trump launched his mass deportation push.
"Get the fuck out," was Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's message to ICE following the killing of Good on Wednesday.
The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization, stressed that Good's killing at the hands of Jonathan Ross—a federal agent with more than a decade of experience at ICE—was not the first time that federal officers have killed civilians since the Trump administration launched its aggressive immigration enforcement campaign.
"Federal officers have fatally shot at least three other people in the last five months," The Marshall Project noted. "In September, Silverio Villegas González, a father originally from Mexico who worked as a cook, was killed while reportedly trying to flee from officers in a Chicago suburb, WBEZ reported. In December, a border patrol agent killed a 31-year-old Mexican citizen while trying to detain him in Rio Grande City, Texas."
The organization went on to observe that "federal officers have fired on at least nine people while they were in their vehicles" and repeatedly threatened others with deadly force.
"A pregnant Illinois woman told Newsweek she thought her life was about to end when a federal agent pointed his gun through her car window, after she honked her horn to alert people ICE was nearby," The Marshall Project reported. "In another incident in Chicago, a combat veteran alleged in a court filing that a federal officer said 'bang, bang' and 'you're dead, liberal' while pointing a handgun at him."
The list of abuses, both alleged and captured in real time, is seemingly endless. As the investigative outlet ProPublica reported late last year:
Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.
Immigrants detained by ICE have accused agents of horrific abuse, including sexual assault. One teenager held at Fort Bliss, the largest immigration detention center in the US, alleged that an officer broke his tooth and "crushed" his testicles while another "forced his fingers deep into my ears," causing lasting damage.
Those who have turned out in the streets to protest ICE's activities in their neighborhoods—and those who have tried to stop agent abuses—have also been subject to attacks, including tear gas to the face.
On the same day as Good's killing, ICE conducted a raid at a nearby Minneapolis high school. One local resident who witnessed the raid said she saw "one teacher get tackled" as educators and other school employees tried to keep the agents away from students.
The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers accused federal agents of using tear gas—which ICE has deployed frequently in recent months.
The Washington Post reported in November that federal immigration officers "have thrown chemical agents out of vehicles on city streets, creating a hazard for motorists."
"They have thrown tear-gas canisters near stores and schools, exposing children, pregnant women, and older people to the noxious gas," the newspaper added. "And on numerous occasions federal officers have fired pepper balls directly at protesters—in one case, striking a pastor in the head."
In response to ICE's horrific behavior, lawmakers at the federal level have taken steps aimed at constraining an agency whose budget is now larger than that of a dozen nations' militaries.
US Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) is introducing articles of impeachment against Noem, accusing her of setting loose ICE's "reign of terror."
Axios reported Thursday that US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) "will propose sweeping reforms" to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), "including requiring a warrant for arrests, banning masks during enforcement operations, and requiring Border Patrol to remain at the border."
Murphy is "also trying to build a coalition of Democrats to insist on some restraints on DHS' authority as a condition of their support for a spending bill for the department—with funding set to lapse January 30," the outlet reported.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has previously called for the abolition of ICE, warned that the agency is currently "accountable to no one."
"It's a nightmare," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on the steps of the US Capitol on Wednesday. "They are operating with impunity. We just saw them murder an American citizen in cold blood, in the street."
"This is an agency that must be reined in," she added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular