Witnesses said more than 10,000 people gathered at a football ground in central Dhaka shouting '``Hasina please quit'' and ``Dissolve parliament, we want polls''.

The protesters belonging to Begum Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the largest opposition faction in a parliament which is dominated by Sheikh Hasina's ruling Awami League, also accused the government of economic mismanagement, corruption and persecution of political rivals.

``We planned this hunger strike for eight hours to send a signal to the ruling party about the growing popular discontent with the government,'' Begum Zia said before she herself went on hunger strike with other leaders of a BNP-led alliance that includes the fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami.

``It is also to demonstrateagainst rising prices and a growing crime rate,'' added Begum Zia, a former prime minister who ruled the country for almost five years before she was herself forced to quit in March 1996 over allegations of corruption and manipulation of by-elections triggering street unrest.

The latest anti-government protests came amid fresh arrests by police of prominent opposition student activists and charges of corruption against opposition leaders including Begum Zia.