Chhapra Mosque rises to fame:Daily Sun

sun photo Chhapra Mosque has become a widely-known mosque in this city of mosques and has now risen to fame for its unique name. The mosque which is located in Azimpur area bears a unique name that makes this mosque famous among people. ‘Chapra’, a local Bengali word, stands for a structure that is made of straw and bamboos. As the mosque was made with these stuffs, locals named it ‘Chapra Mosque’
. People will get astonished as there is no existence of old Chapra Mosque at present. That little Chapra Mosque has been turned into a four-storied one. Talking to the mosque committee and locals, it is known that the mosque was set up during the partition of India in 1947. In order to offer prayers, some people had made a tiny praying site with straws and bamboos. Since then, it has been named Chpara Mosque. In the course of time, it was needed to expand the structure to maintain the volume of people. ABM Sirazul Haque, who has been engaged in the development of this mosque since over 40 years, told daily sun, “The mosque was built in 1947. Later in 1967, the mosque was built newly by wiping out the old structure. “But, the sign of original mosque has been kept within the new structure.” At present, the then tiny mosque has now been turned into a four-storey mosque along with a madrasa. Though the original mosque has gone under the new structure but, the people still love to call this mosque by its old name, he added. The mosque has two minarets with holding a number of round pillars. The interior design of the present mosque is made concentrating on native common architect. Though the mosque is common in design, but both the interior and exterior is designed with stone piece that reflects Islamic beauty. Excessive ornamentation is avoided throughout the mosque, since minimizing ornamentation is typical of modern architecture. The mosque is capable to accommodate nearly 5,000 Muslims for prayers simultaneously. Md. Delwar Hossain, a businessman who came to Azimpur from Faridpur nearly 50 years ago, told daily sun, “When I came to Azimpur, I hardly found structure in this vicinity. Azimpur was well-known for a graveyard. Along with the popularity of the graveyard, Chapra Mosque was also become well-known as it is only mosque near the graveyard.” The mosque has been running by a fifteen member committee that looks after the overall matter of the mosque. There are four Khatibs and three imams to run the mosque. The Khatibs conduct Jum’a prayers by turns while imams conduct five-time prayers. The four Khatibs are Mufti Sayeed Ahmed, Mufti Dilwar Hossain, Mufti Mozammel Haque and Mufti Farid Uddin while the imams are Maulana Abdul Haque, Maulana Ismail and Maulana Shafiqul Islam.