Reports from the mid-western town of Nepalgunj say Maoist rebels have freed drivers and helpers of nine tankers carrying petroleum products on Monday afternoon.

The rebels had taken the tankers into their custody from a place called Aghaiya in the mid-western district of Banke along the Mahendra highway on Saturday while they were on their way to Ghorahi from Nepalgunj in the mid-western region.

The transport workers were freed from the same place but the whereabouts of tankers are still unknown.

Nepal Petroleum Dealers Association had urged the rebels to free the transport workers and the tankers saying that the petroleum products belonged to private businessmen, not the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC).

Reports say the mid-western town of Ghorahi is facing acute shortage of petroleum products due to disruption in the supply of POL products.

On Friday, the rebels had set on fire a tanker carrying POL products at Kuntabesi of Mahadevsthan VDC in Kavre district. No reason was given. The tanker was carrying fuel for the Melamchi Water Supply Project.