Bangladeshis were fleeing the capital ahead of a countrywide transport blockade on Monday, fearing a repeat of violence during a similar action last week aimed at forcing out officials overseeing January elections.
Schools tried to finish annual tests, banks worked extra hours, and many people bought tickets out of Dhaka, witnesses said. Even weddings were being rushed.
"The country is up for another crippling shutdown of buses, trains and ferries -- and also for violence that could be widespread," a senior police officer said on Sunday.
Two people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes with police and between rival activists during the previous stoppage.
The blockades are being organised by a 14-party alliance led by Sheikh Hasina, chief of the Awami League, who accuses the election officials of favouring her rivals, particularly the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) of Begum Khaleda Zia.
"A fresh countrywide indefinite transport blockade will be enforced from 7 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Monday as the president failed to take any step to reorganise the election commission in the last four days," Abdul Jalil, general secretary of the Awami League, told reporters.
Earlier Hasina and Jalil met President Iajuddin Ahmed, who is also the chief of an interim caretaker government that will conduct the January election.
"The Awami League and its allies will not accept any election schedule without reforms," Jalil quoted Hasina as telling the president.
Several students were injured in clashes on Sunday between supporters of Hasina and Khaleda at Dhaka University, police said.
Authorities earlier extended a campus holiday and suspended all examinations at the 50,000-student university until Nov. 26 because of the volatile political situation.
Khaleda stepped down last month at the end of her five-year term and the country is now being run by an interim administration.
Hasina says she believes her alliance will win January's parliamentary election if the poll officials step aside.
During Khaleda's term, Hasina and her alliance led dozens of nation-wide strikes and protests. Last week's four-day blockade shut everything from schools to ports.
Abdur Rouf and his ill father were among the many fleeing Dhaka on Sunday by bus.
"I cannot really wait and see what happens," said Rouf, who had brought his father to Dhaka for treatment from the east of the country. "We must go back while the roads are open."
The BNP and ally Jamaat-e-Islami party held rallies in major cities on Sunday to demonstrate their "resolve to counter the Awami offensive, including the transport blockade".