After the Battle of Karari (2 September 1898) in which the Mahdist forces of the Khalifa were defeated by an Anglo-Egyptian army under General Herbert Kitchener, the Mahdi's family were forced to return to their original homes on Aba Island on the White Nile in September 1898. They were arrested there and sent east to Shakaba. After hearing a rumor that the group was conducting Mahdist propaganda, a force of government troops fired on the group at random, killing Khalifa Muhammad Sharif and two of the Mahdi's sons, al-Fadil and al-Bushra.