KATHMANDU, Jan 9: Maoist rebels released 300 bus passengers on Sunday several hours after abducting them for defying a blockade of the highway linking south eastern Nepal to India, a security source said.

The Maoists stopped seven buses on the Mahendra Highway and held the passengers for several hours before releasing them, the source said. "Several hours after their abduction, the passengers were set free unharmed in the presence of local journalists, human rights activists and lawyers but the rebels kept all the seven buses," the source said.

Maoist rebels have organized frequent traffic blockades in the past three months on roads leading from the capital Kathmandu to disrupt commerce and force the government to negotiate on demands for a constituent assembly to redraft the country's constitution.

In December, Nepal's government invoked anti-hoarding and price control laws to stem rises in food and fuel prices to combat a traffic blockade of the capital. -AFP