Shops were shut in Dhaka on Sunday and most vehicles stayed off the roads in a daylong strike called by opposition parties to demand the resignation of a government that has just completed three years in power.
Security was tight as riot police and special forces fanned out to deter violence. Bangladesh is reeling from floods that have inundated large areas of the country, leaving thousands of families to battle with hunger and disease.
"This government has lost all rights to rule and must resign immediately," Abdul Jalil, general secretary of the opposition Awami League party that called the strike along with its allies, said in a statement. "Otherwise, we will pull it down."
The ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party has refused to step down even a day before its five-year term ends in October 2006.
Analysts said the League's campaign was unlikely to drive Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia from power as she controlled a two-thirds majority in the 300-member parliament and has strong support in the countryside.
The Awami League and its allies are using the strike, one of several after party chief Sheikh Hasina escaped a grenade attack at a rally on August 21, to condemn that attack and focus on what they say is growing lawlessness.
The Awami League will launch a sustained campaign to oust the "corrupt, inefficient and repressive government" in mid-November, following the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Abdul Jalil said.