Idrakpur, now Munshiganj was a strategically very significant point as it was the junction of a number of rivers including Meghna River, Shitalakshya River, Ichhamati River and Dhaleshwari River.[1] The fort was built on the bank of the junction of Ichhamati River and Meghna River.

The Portuguese and Magh pirates used this point to move forward to Dhaka through Shitalakshya River. On their way to Dhaka they used to loot other important cities like Sonargaon and Bikrampur.[2]

Mir Jumla II was determined to protect Dhaka and eager to develop the wealthy area Bikrampur. So, he came up with a triangular defence strategy to protect the cities from the Portuguese pirates.[3]

Idrakpur Fort was the centre of his strategy. The erection of the fort was intended to check the advance of the Magh and Portuguese pirates proceeding towards the Mughal capital city of Dhaka. The fort was also used as the naval base of the naval fleet of 200 frigates under Mughal admiral Abul Hossain.[3]

According to the strategy, whenever the pirates made an attempt to advance to Dhaka the Mughal soldiers would be ordered to start firing mortars both from the cannons of their 200 battleships and from the Idrakpur Fort leaving the pirates with no options but to retreat or die on the rivers.

However, if any of the pirate ships survived the initial attack and tried to advance to Dhaka the Sonakanda Fort and the Hajiganj Fort, situated on the eastern and western bank of Shitalakshya River respectively, would start throwing round-shots to those ships and vessels and sink all the pirate ships on the river.[4]

It was probably built in about 1660 A.D.

 

Idrakpur Fort