The killing was carried out with efficiency, and the inhabitants were expelled from their homes in their nightclothes. The Amin, on the gate of the fort, ordered the Mayj Khalid Al-Murabi to inspect everyone leaving the city who had remained in a spot between the fort and the camp. The followers of the Mahdi were exposed to the biting cold and the burning sun. The Dervishes took over the houses, and the next day they began to torture the people. The owner of the house and the senior members of his family were summoned to the Amin's house, and the interrogation began. They would say to him, "You have disbelieved in God and His Messenger and fought us. God and His Messenger have declared your blood forfeit and your property forbidden to you, making it lawful for the Mahdi and the Ansar. There is no safety for you in this world or the next except by surrendering all your possessions, even the needle and thread." Whether he submitted to these lies and surrendered his property or not, he was to be beaten one thousand lashes, and the woman half that. They would tie his hands and feet, lay him on the ground, and pour cold water on him at night. The inhabitants remained in this torment until all the money and possessions were collected in the treasury.

Among the incidents that occurred on the day Khartoum fell was the case of a man named Kureib, a relative of the Mahdi. He, along with the guards of the Lifta, Sharif, who were called the "Mulazimiya," and about ten of his relatives, entered the house of an Egyptian man named Ibrahim, who had seven brothers. They killed eight of them and searched the house, but found no money. Ibrahim had a slave boy nine years old, whom his mother and the women of his uncles hid among the possessions for fear of him being killed. They found him during the search and brought him out. His mother and the women of his uncles threw themselves at the feet of Kureib and his companions, saying, "His father and his seven uncles have been killed. We beg you by the Mahdi, do not leave this boy to us." He turned to them and said, "How..."