Schools and businesses are shut down across Bangladesh as the country's main opposition party and its allies hold a daylong strike to protest recent hikes in fuel prices.

Thousands of police were deployed across the capital, Dhaka, to keep order and prevent widescale opposition protests.

Transportation in and out of the city was largely disrupted with little traffic reported on the streets of the capital.

The strike was called by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies over increased fuel prices, the detention of opposition activists and the government's failure to tackle plunging prices in the Dhaka stock market.

The strike is supported by the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Islami Oikya and the Bangladesh Jatiya Party.