DHAKA -- Police detained at least 50 people after chasing hundreds of chanting opposition activists through the streets of the Bangladesh capital on Saturday as a strike called by opposition Awami League took effect.

The opposition called the dawn-to-dusk national strike to protest against growing lawlessness and what it said was persecution of party members.

The strike was likely to disrupt operations at the country's main Chittagong port and trading on the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges, officials said. Saturday is a working day in mostly Muslim Bangladesh.

Most shops stayed closed and the streets of Dhaka were deserted apart from a few buses and rickshaws. Trains and ferries were mostly on schedule, however, but officials said some flights might be rescheduled.

Saturday's strike was the third called by opposition parties and trade unions since August 28.

The government says the opposition is trying to spread "falsehood and create anarchy" ahead of a week-long meeting of Commonwealth lawmakers in Dhaka from October 4 which the Awami League says it will boycott.

"While we are not allowed to speak freely in parliament and our men are being continuously vandalized and killed, there is no use in attending," said Awami League General Secretary Mohammad Abdul Jalil. "The strike is intended to highlight the government's failure in every sector including law and order and its ... policy of persecuting opposition leaders and activists."

Authorities have deployed thousands of extra police in Dhaka and Chittagong port city to prevent violence, officials told Reuters.

Business leaders say each day of production lost to strikes -- called frequently by the opposition -- costs the impoverished country at least $60 million.