Atrai ( bn, আত্রাই) is the southernmost

upazila An ''upazila'' ( bn, উপজেলা, upôzela, lit=sub-district pronounced: ), formerly called ''thana'', is an administrative region in Bangladesh, functioning as a sub-unit of a district. It can be seen as an analogous to a county or a ...

Naogaon District Naogaon District ( bn, নওগাঁ, Nôugã) is a district in northern Bangladesh, part of the Rajshahi Division. It is named after its headquarters, the city of Naogaon in Naogaon Sadar Upazila. Demographics According to the 2022 Censu ...

, located in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

Rajshahi Division Rajshahi Division ( bn, রাজশাহী বিভাগ) is one of the eight first-level administrative divisions of Bangladesh. It has an area of and a population at the 2011 Census of 18,484,858. Rajshahi Division consists of 8 district ...

. It is named after its principal watercourse, the

Atrai River Atrai River (also spelt as Atreyee) ( bn, আত্রাই/আত্রেয়ী নদী) flows in West Bengal and northern parts of Bangladesh. In ancient times the river was called Atreyee and finds a mention in the Mahabharata, one o ...

Geography

Map of Naogaon District (English) Bangladesh

Atrai has 30570 households and total area 284.41 km². Along with the

, the Nagor River, Pakar

Beel A beel ( Bengali and Assamese: বিল) is a billabong or a lake-like wetland with static water (as opposed to moving water in rivers and canals - typically called in Bengali, in the Ganges - Brahmaputra flood plains of the Eastern Indi ...

, Chander Beel, Kaklaban Beel are notable water bodies.

History

It is said that

Islam Khan I Shaikh Alauddin Chisti (1570–1613; known as Islam Khan Chisti) was a Mughal general and the Subahdar of Bengal. He transferred the capital of Bengal from Rajmahal to Dhaka and renamed it Jahangirnagar. He was awarded the titular name of Isla ...

, a Mughal

Subahdar Subahdar, also known as Nazim or in English as a "Subah", was one of the designations of a governor of a Subah (province) during the Khalji dynasty of Bengal, Mamluk dynasty (Delhi), Khalji dynasty, Tughlaq dynasty, Mughal era ( of India who w ...

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, passed through Atrai (hence many villages have names such as Islampur and Islamganthi) and constructed a mosque known as the Islamganthi Mosque in the seventeenth century. Atrai later came under the

zamindar A zamindar (Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

i of the Mollah political family. In 1916, Atrai was officially established as a

thana Thana means "police station" in South Asian countries, and can also mean the district controlled by a police station. * Thanas of Bangladesh, former subdistricts in the administrative geography of Bangladesh; later renamed ''upazila'' * in (Brit ...

. In 1968, the Mollah Azad Memorial College was founded in Atrai. During the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali ...

of 1971, a brawl emerged between the two factions in Bandaikhara on 19 September. Another encounter took place near Ghaulya and Taranagar. In a surprise attack, nine

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

ships were sunk. Its status was upgraded to

(sub-district) in August 1983 as part of the

President of Bangladesh The president of Bangladesh ( bn, বাংলাদেশের রাষ্ট্রপতি — ) officially the President of the People's Republic of Bangladesh ( bn, গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশে ...

Hussain Muhammad Ershad Lt. Gen. Hussain Muhammad Ershad ( bn, হুসেইন মুহাম্মদ এরশাদ; 1 February 1930 – 14 July 2019) was a Bangladeshi Army Chief politician who served as the President of Bangladesh from 1983 to 1990, a time m ...

's decentralisation programme.

Demographics

According to

2011 Bangladesh census In 2011, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, conducted a national census in Bangladesh, which provided a provisional estimate of the total population of the country as 142,319,000. The previous decennial census was the 2001 census. Data were reco ...

, Atrai had a population of 193,256. Males constituted 49.74% of the population and females 50.26%. Muslims formed 90.66% of the population, Hindus 9.31% and others 0.03%. Atrai had a literacy rate of 45.38% for the population 7 years and above. As of the

1991 Bangladesh census In 1991, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, conducted a national census in Bangladesh. They recorded data from all of the districts and upazilas and main cities in Bangladesh including statistical data on population size, households, sex and a ...

, Atrai has a population of 166978. Males constitute 50.88% of the population, and females 49.12%. The population above the age of eighteen years is 83466.

Administration

Atrai Upazila is divided into eight union parishads: Ashanganj, Bhonpara, Bisha, Hatkalupara, Kalikapur, Maniari, Panchupur, and Sahagola. The union parishads are subdivided into 155 mauzas and 200 villages.

Chairmen

Facilities

Atrai Upazila has hundreds of mosques. Many of the mosques are notable tourist attractions in Atrai due to their antiquity or architectural style. These include the Islamganthi Mosque, Mahadighi Mosque, Qazipara Mosque and Mirpur Mosque. The

mazar (mausoleum) A ''mazār'' ( ar, مزار), or ''darīh'' () in the Maghreb, is a mausoleum or shrine in some places of the world, typically that of a saint or notable religious leader. Medieval Arabic texts may also use the words ''mašhad'' or ''maqām'' ...

of Naib Ali the

Dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from fa, درویش, ''Darvīsh'') in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage ...

is situated in Sannyasbari. The upazila is home to other facilities such as the Madinatul Uloom Madrasa and Lillah Boarding Orphanage in Biharipur and the Bandaikhara Madhyapara Islamia Hafizia Madrasa and Orphanage Lillah Boarding.

Notable people

* Ohidur Rahman, politician *

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

, Nobel laureate who had lived here

References

{{Upazilas of Rajshahi Division Upazilas of Naogaon District