Rajarhat is an upazila of Kurigram District in the Division of Rangpur, Bangladesh. Since 1981 it had been a Thana and later on September 14, 1983 was turned into an upazila by the government.

Raufun Basunia, former Joint Secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra League, and the General Secretary of its University of Dhaka branch was a prominent student leader who led anti-dictatorship movement in Bangladesh and was killed by pro-junta activists. He was shot dead during a clash between Chhatra Sangram Parishad and Chhatra Samaj, the ruling Jatiyo Party-backed student wing in front of Mohsin Hall at University of Dhaka on 13 February 1985. His death provoked the anti-junta student activists, and the movement for restoration of democracy became even more radicalised and consolidated. It became so violent that the dictator Hussein Muhammad Ershad had to resign shortly afterwards.