.|left Part of the ancient kingdom of
Harikela, 36 thin bull-and-triglyph silver coins were discovered inside a little clay pot in Hathazari's Jobra village in July 1980. All, except one, mentioned the kingdom of Harikela. The
Kingdom of Mrauk U built numerous mudforts in present-day Hathazari. In the fifteenth century, the
Sultan of Bengal Shamsuddin Yusuf Shah had a mosque constructed in Dewannagar
mouza which is now known as
Faqir Mosque. During an expedition against the
Arakanese in the early 16th century, Prince
Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah passed through the area where he dug a reservoir and built a mosque which still stands today in
Chikandandi Union. During the
Mughal period, present-day Hathazari was a part of the Aurangabad Pargana. 12
hazaris were appointed to keep law and order and defend the
pargana of Aurangabad. Due to Aurangabad being so far away from
Murshidabad, the erstwhile capital of the
Nawabs of Bengal, the
hazaris neglected their duties. The Nawab's representative, Mahasingh, resorted to a ruse to undermine the power of the Hazaris and took the invitation to the Nawab's Kanchari in
Sitakunda by cheating with the help of a trick. He was able to betray and capture eight of the twelve Hazaris and send them to Murshidabad. Two of the ten remaining Hazaris surrendered and were excused. The
Nawab of Bengal imprisoned the eight Hazaris in iron cages and ordered them to be drowned in the Ganges. One of the excused Hazaris, Bir Singh Hazari, established a
haat bazaar in the area and so it came to be known as Hathazari (The haat/market of the Hazari). Hathazari
Thana (an area controlled by a police station) was formed in 1929. The following year, it was the site of a battle between Bengali revolutionaries led by
Surya Sen and
Ananta Singh, and
British Indian Army soldiers. During the
Burma campaign 1944–45, the
United States Army Air Forces used the
Hathazari Airfield as a supply point and staging airfield for resupply airlift drops over
Burma and also as a radio relay station. During the
Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, 11 Bengali freedom fighters were murdered near Nazirhat Bus Stand. The Nobel Prize-recognised
Grameen Bank was established in the village of Jobra through a rural banking project there. Hathazari Thana was made an
upazila in 1983. ==Demographics==