A one-day hartal by the largest Islamist party demanding release of its leaders who face charges of war crimes, threw normal life out of gear across Bangladesh Tuesday.

Obstructed to hold a rally Monday in Dhaka, Bangladesh Jamaat-e- Islami party called the dawn-to-dusk hartal, citing "government's repressive acts, massive corruption, reluctance to reinstate non- party caretaker system, failure to improve law and order situation and contain price hike of essentials and hurting religious sentiment."

Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has extended moral support to its main ally's hartal which crippled normal life and business transaction to some extent with many main markets and educational institutions closed Tuesday.

Traffic on the city streets remained thin as most private vehicles were kept indoors. Most shops and other business establishments also downed their shutters and motorized vehicles were rare on the usually-clogged city streets.

Security forces dispersed protesters as they tried to hold marches along major roads in Dhaka and many other parts of the country. Dozens of activists of the Islamist party were detained in different parts of the country during the hartal.

Clashes, arsons, and vandalism have been reported across the country on Tuesday. Protesters clashed with police when they vandalized vehicles and set fire to police vans and buses in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.

Dozens of people including protesters and policemen were injured in clashes in major cities and towns including Dhaka.

Leading English newspaper The Daily Star's online version reported that locals also heard the sound of cocktail blast in Dhaka's downtown Kalyanpur area.

Although inter-district buses stayed off the roads, the authorities claimed that operation of trains, launches and flights was usual.

Law enforcers were out in the capital streets early morning and appeared firm not to let the pro-hartal pickets gather anywhere in the city.

Video footage of the local Independent television showed a demonstrator setting fire to a bus while many others were damaging vehicles in Dhaka.Police detained 35 protesters.

The ruling party activists were seen to stage anti-hartal procession on many city streets.

Jamaat's Acting Secretary General Shafiqur Rahman who Monday made the announcement of hartal, said, "Jamaat is an Election Commission registered democratic party. But the party is being obstructed to observe its peaceful political programs during the last four years of this government."

Authorities deny the claims of Jamaat, saying the party is creating anarchic situation in the name of political programs aimed at foiling ongoing war crimes trial. The ruling party leaders say verdict against the war criminals would begin by this month.

Apart from Ghulam Azam, called the party's spiritual leader, about a dozen leaders of Jamaat, including its chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, and BNP are now facing war crimes charges before two tribunals.

After returning to power in January 2009, Hasina, daughter of Bangladesh's independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, established the tribunals in March 2010, almost 40 years after the 1971 fight for independence from Pakistan, allegedly to castigate those committed crimes against humanity during the nine-month war.

Both BNP and Jamaat have already dismissed the court as a government "show trial" and said it is a domestic set-up with no United Nations oversight or involvement.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh was called East Pakistan until 1971. Hasina's government said about 3 million people were killed in the war although independent researchers think that between 300,000 and 500,000 died.