DHAKA - Police fired teargas in the Bangladeshi capital today to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing opposition activists during a general strike to protest price hikes of essential goods, witnesses said.

Police detained 40 members of the main opposition Awami League as they tried to push through barbed wire barricades to hold a street march in Dhaka.

The youth wing of the Awami League, which is led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, called the one-day strike to protest against rising prices of commodities and short supply of electricity.

A 14-party opposition alliance led by the Awami League has been running a campaign for months now to force the resignation of the government, saying it had failed to fight Islamic extremism and control prices.

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