Moulvibazar Sadar Upazila


Moulvibazar Sadar is an Upazila of Moulvibazar District in the Division of Sylhet, Bangladesh.

History

In ancient times, the region was known as Chandrapur or Chandrarajya. After the Conquest of Gour in 1303, many disciples of Shah Jalal such as Shah Mustafa migrated and settled in present-day Moulvibazar Sadar where they preached Islam to the local people. Mustafa would eventually succeed Raja Chandra Singh as the ruler of Chandrapur after marrying the Raja's daughter. Shah Farang and Shah Darang migrated to Bekhamura, Shah Kamaluddin to Kamalpur, Shah Wali Mahmud to Singkapon, Haji Ahmad Rasool to Ghorakhal, Shah Hilal to Hilalpur, and Babu Dawlat to Bibi Dawlat.
In 1476, the Minister of Sylhet, Majlis Alam, and his father, Musa ibn Haji Amir, built the Goyghor Mosque. This mosque hosted shelter for the Afghan warrior, Khwaja Usman, in 1593 from the Subahdar of Mughal Bengal, Man Singh I.
In 1771, Moulvi Syed Qudratullah established a bazaar near the banks of the Manu River using his zamindari land. He started importing edible goods, such as fruits and vegetables opening up opportunities for people to purchase as well as sell. The location allowed easy access through river and land transport. The Sadar Upazila was first founded as Moulvibazar Thana in 1882. In 1912, there was an anti-British protest held in the village of Jagatshi, organised by Swami Dayananda. The anti-British Khilafat Movement in 1921 also spread to Moulvibazar and campaigners that were present included Chittaranjan Das, Hussain Ahmed Madani and Sarojini Naidu. In 1932, the Ali Amzad Government Girls' High School was opened as a public school.
During the Bangladesh Liberation War, armed resistance begun at the village of Srirainagar in Kanakpur on 27 March 1971. The Pakistani army was said to have made a surprise attack on the procession there in which two people were killed. The Naria massacre took place on 5 May in Upper Kagabala. On 20 December, a number of people were killed and wounded by mine explosions at the premises of the Moulvibazar Government High School. The thana was turned into an upazila in 1984. In 2005, the Saifur Rahman Stadium was established, acting as a multi-use arena fitting 15,000 people.

Geography

Moulvibazar Sadar is located at. It has 40,573 households and total area 344.34 km². It is bordered by Balaganj in the north, Rajnagar and Kamalganj in the east, Srimangal in the south and Nabiganj in the west.

Administration

The upazila has 12 Union Parishads and 1 pourashava. In total, there are 192 mouzas and 434 villages. The UPs and pourashava are as follow:
The pourashava is made up of 9 wards:
This union has 9 wards with a total of 51 villages:
This union has 33 areas/villages:
This union has 9 wards with a total of 43 areas/villages:
This union has 9 wards with a total of 29 villages:
has 49 villages:
This union has 9 wards with a total of 28 villages:
This union has 9 wards with a total of 24 villages:
has 33 villages:
The current Upazila Chairman of Moulvibazar Sadar Upazila is Md Kamal Hussain of Awami League. He has been the Upazila Chairman since March 2019 and is also the 2nd Joint General Secretary of Moulvibazar District unit of Awami League. He studied at Moulvibazar Government College.

Demographics

As of the 1991 Bangladesh census, Moulvibazar Sadar has a population of 239,378. It has now grown to 281,593 according to later censuses. Males constitute 51.56% of the population, and females 48.44%. It's over-18 population is 126,303. There are over 45,000 Hindus, 150 Buddhists, 17 Christians and 319 of other faiths.

Education

According to Banglapedia, Ali Amzad Government Girls' High School, founded in 1932, is a notable secondary school. Moulvibazar Sadar has an average literacy rate of 48.6%. The literacy rate for the urban areas is 65.2% while in the rural areas it is 45.7%. The Upazila has 5 colleges as well as vocational, primary teacher, nurse, youth, blind welfare training institutes. It also has a co-operative institute, a horticulture research institute. There are 17 primary schools and 7 community and satellite schools, in addition to 16 kindergartens. In total, there are 42 madrasas.

Notable people