Police charged baton and used water cannon to disperse supporters of the half-day hartal enforced by Left Democratic Alliance (LDA) protesting the price hike of daily essentials at Paltan intersection in the city on Monday.

Riaz Montu, one of the hartal supporters, said, "We were staging demonstrations peacefully. But police charged baton on us around 12pm."

The half-day nationwide hartal enforced by Left Democratic Alliance (LDA) to protest the soaring prices of edible oil, other essential commodities and utility services ended at 12 pm.

Hartal supporters brought out processions in the city's Paltan intersection and held sit-in programmes, halting the vehicular movement from Kakrail to GPO intersection and Press Club to Dainik Bangla intersection in the morning.

Left-leaning leaders, students and activists also blocked Shahbagh intersection.

Vehicular movement from Science Lab to Shahbagh, Farmgate to Shahbagh and Press Club to Shahbagh remained halted for several hours, causing severe gridlocks that also spread to other parts of the capital, said Assistant Commissioner (Traffic-Shahbagh) Md Nurun Nabi.

The hartal began at 6am and continued till 12pm.

On March 11, the LDA called the nationwide half-day hartal.