DHAKA -- A one-day general strike in protest at higher taxes and crime largely paralyzed Bangladesh on Sunday but security forces maintained tight control.

The strike -- which closed schools, businesses and stock exchanges and disrupted transport and port activities -- was mostly peaceful, although one man was wounded by gunshot outside the capital Dhaka, police said. The young man, Arif, was rushed to the Dhaka medical college hospital with bullet wounds from Keraniganj, 10 km (six miles) from Dhaka, doctors said.

Authorities deployed hundreds of extra police and kept paramilitary troops on standby as strikers vowed to beat any attempt to foil the stoppage, called by the main opposition Awami League.

Witnesses said police arrested at least 10 opposition activists and drove away hundreds trying to stage a rally outside the Awami League's central office.

"They (police) even didn't spare women activists," one witness told Reuters. "Steel-helmeted female police, aided by their male colleagues, scuffled with the chanting women and forced them away," he added.

The strike came on the anniversary of the death of 20 people in a bomb blast at an Awami office last year. An investigation into the fatal bombing is still incomplete, police said.

A senior Awami leader said police on Sunday prevented many activists from taking to the streets but the party's high command asked them to try to avoid confrontation.

"Police arrested about 200 party activists around the country in the past two days," Saber Hossain Chowdhury, who is also a former minister, told Reuters.

Most private offices, factories, banks and shops were shut while port officials said cargo handling and deliveries were disrupted.

Few state corporation buses operated in the capital but many government officials and employees walked or traveled by pedal-driven rickshaws to their offices, witnesses said.

Transport operators said ferries and trains moved on schedule with few passengers. Eleven domestic and international flights were canceled.

Sunday is a working day in mainly Muslim Bangladesh.

Authorities imposed a ban on rallies and demonstrations in Dhaka and other cities during the strike, and asked police to arrest anyone found carrying guns, bombs and even sticks.

"We had been asked to impose an unbreachable security," a Dhaka police officer told Reuters. "And the security of course was too tight for the opposition to try to break or ignore," said the officer, who asked not to be named.

The Awami League called the strike to protest against sweeping tax hikes on imported foods and other items, which the government proposed in its 2002/03 budget this month to make up a revenue shortfall.

Awami Chief Sheikh Hasina said on Friday the budget, which cut taxes on new cars and televisions, was designed to "make the rich richer and bring more comfort to their lavish lifestyles". She said the strike was also protesting at deteriorating law and order and persecution of opposition leaders and activists.

Hasina, a former prime minister, alleged that thousands of her party workers had been killed, wounded or detained in a political vendetta since a new government took over eight months ago.

The Awami League lost to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia in last October's general election, which Hasina alleged had been rigged. The BNP rejected the allegation.

The BNP on Saturday criticized Hasina for breaking a promise she made while in power that Awami League would never again call a strike or shutdown even if it was in the opposition.

Each day of a strike costs the impoverished country up to $66 million in lost production and export, business leaders said.