In the Gauripur area of Assam’s Dhubri district, the facade of medical rehabilitation was shattered on April 24, 2026, when five Hindu men were forced to jump from the top floor of the Rehab center’s building. They weren’t attempting suicide; they were escaping a systematic campaign of torture and religious coercion.
The victims, who were admitted to the “Nibaran” rehabilitation center for addiction recovery, ended up in a facility that allegedly functioned more as a radicalization hub than a clinic. Following the desperate escape, which left three victims with critical injuries, the Dhubri police launched a late-night raid, uncovering a nightmare of physical and psychological abuse.
Conversion Under the Guise of Care
According to harrowing victim testimonies, the management of the center utilized “treatment” as a leverage point for religious conversion. The inmates were allegedly told that their path to recovery and “staff positions” within the facility required them to embrace Islam.
When the victims resisted, the “treatment” turned into a medieval display of violence:
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Forced Consumption: Hindu inmates were coerced into eating beef (cow meat) as a deliberate act of religious desecration and to break their cultural ties.
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Systemic Torture: Those who refused the conversion or the meat were reportedly beaten with iron rods and motor pipes, specifically targeting the soles of their feet to inflict maximum pain with minimal visible external bruising.
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Manual Labor: Patients were treated as indentured labor, forced to clean toilets and wash the clothes of the staff while being denied basic medical care for skin infections like scabies.
The Business of Radicalization
The investigation has revealed that the Nibaran center was a dual-threat operation: a financial scam and a radicalization cell. For three years, the facility operated illegally without a valid registration.
The financial exploitation was clinical. Families were charged ₹12,000 per month for the care of their loved ones, but the management spent barely ₹2,000, pocketing the rest while starving the inmates or feeding them a diet of boiled potatoes and saltless rice. This high-margin revenue model allowed the facility to stay under the radar while its owner, Zahirul Sheikh, managed the operation with impunity.
Rehab Jihad?
The incident has sparked a fierce conversation regarding what many are now calling “Rehab Jihad.” The tactical use of vulnerable spaces, rehabilitation centers, orphanages, or shelters, to target Hindu individuals when they are at their most fragile. By cutting off contact with their families and subjecting them to a cycle of starvation and violence, handlers aim to force a “spiritual break” that leads to conversion.
The fact that this facility operated for three years without oversight points to a massive gap in the monitoring of private healthcare in rural Assam. While the police have rescued the remaining inmates, the primary architect of the scheme, Zahirul Sheikh, remains at large.
A Pattern of Predatory Inclusion
The Dhubri case is a stark reminder that the frontline of radicalization is often hidden in plain sight. These centers rely on the desperation of families looking for help, only to weaponize that trust against the very people they are meant to protect.
As the search for Zahirul Sheikh continues, the demand for a total audit of private rehabilitation centers across the state is growing. The “Nibaran” horror story is a clear signal that institutional neutrality is being systematically compromised by radical actors in the shadow of the 0.5 Front.