People
Freedom fighters, scholars, writers, artists and athletes from this city.
Shah Makhdum Rupos
The thirteenth-century Sufi saint associated with the spread of Islam into the Varendra region. Rajshahi's airport carries his name.
Sufi saint
A. H. M. Kamaruzzaman
Born in Rajshahi in 1926, an organiser of the Liberation War and a minister in the 1971 provisional government. Killed in Dhaka Central Jail in November 1975.
1926 – 1975
Hasan Azizul Huq
One of the major Bengali fiction writers of his generation, who taught philosophy at the University of Rajshahi and made the city his home.
1939 – 2021
Akshay Kumar Maitreya
Lawyer, historian and one of the three founders of the Varendra Research Society and its museum in 1910.
1861 – 1930
Kumar Sarat Kumar Ray
Zamindar of the Dighapatia family who founded and presided over the Varendra Research Society, and paid for the museum that grew out of it.
Founder of the Varendra Research Society
Ramaprasad Chanda
A teacher at Rajshahi Collegiate School and a scholar of history, art and archaeology, who became honorary secretary of the Varendra Research Society.
Historian and archaeologist
Mohammad Shamsuzzoha
Proctor and chemistry teacher at Rajshahi University, killed on 18 February 1969 while asking soldiers not to fire on his students.
1934 – 1969