The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist allies enforced the strike in protest at the government's decision to divide the 400-year-old city into two administrative zones.
A party official said eight people were injured.
The BNP, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, is protesting the government decision to divide Dhaka into two administrative zones, a plan they say is aimed at removing the opposition-backed mayor.
Prime Minister Hasina Wajed, Khaleda's archrival, says the split is needed to provide better services to residents. Dhaka is a teeming city of 10 million people with poor infrastructure.
"Protesters became unruly as they pelted bricks and stones at police and torched a police van and motorcycle. We fired teargas to prevent vandalism," Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka police Khorshed Alam said.
The mayor, a senior BNP official who will lose his job in changes to how the city is run, was hauled into a police van at the protest but later released.
Schools and businesses were closed and roads largely deserted as the strike took effect. A few vehicles were moving in the usually clogged streets. Several BNP activists were hurt in scuffles with police at a dawn rally.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, a s nior opposition party official, said at least eight demonstrators were injured in the dispersal, which took place in front of the party's headquarters. He said at least 85 opposition supporters were arrested Saturday, the eve of the strike.
“The government has unleashed a reign of terror to frighten opposition activists,” Alamgir told reporters Sunday. “Police are out to halt our peaceful protests.”
Police say their goal is to maintain order, with some 10,000 security officials deployed in the city. “It is our duty to protect the people and their property,” said Mehedy Hasan, a Dhaka Metropolitan Police official.
Opposition and government supporters clashed briefly in a separate incident Sunday in which several people were hurt, said APTN cameraman Al Emrun Gorjon, who suffered a head injury.
He said the clash broke out after opposition demonstrators hurled stones at a passing bus. Nearby government supporters then clashed with the demonstrators before police arrived, he said.
The government recently ratified a new law splitting Dhaka into two administrative zones, which it said would improve services and utilities for the city's 15 million people.
The opposition criticized the move, saying it was politically motivated as the new system forced the city's elected mayor out of office.
Police spokesmen said at least 13,000 law-enforcers including about 3,500 members of the elite Rapid Action Battalion were patrolling the roads and flashpoints in the city.
