Basra was alleged to be involved in killings of hundreds of Shias, including Shia doctors, policemen, lawyers, in killing Iranian diplomat Sadiq Ganji in 1990 and for killing the Shia leader Syed Sikandar Shah, and a deadly attack on a gathering at a Shia cemetery in 1998, in an assassination attempt on Nawaz Sharif in 1999, besides being accused of several bank heists. He was arrested in 1992 and sentenced to death for killing Ganji, but escaped from prison in 1994.[6][7][3] Basra was also alleged to be involved in killing the Imamia Students Organization leader Dr Muhammad Ali Naqvi in 1995,[7] Sargodha commissioner Syed Tajammal Abbas in 1996,[4] and in killing Gujranwala SSP Muhammad Ashraf Marth in 1997.[9]