Raipur, Sep 9 (IANS): The opposition Congress in Chhattisgarh Friday walked out of the state assembly after charging the police with branding tribals as Maoists and killing them in staged gunfights.

Raising the issue in the state assembly, Congress members cited the case of a village head who was picked up by paramilitary troops and was later found killed.

"People are feeling terrorised by the police in the entire tribal belt of the state because many innocent tribals have been killed in fake encounters by the police and paramilitary troopers," Chhattisgarh Congress chief Nandkumar Patel said.

He asked home minister Nankiram Kanwar to respond to his charges about the alleged rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl, Meena Khalko, in the northern district of Surguja July 6.

In the southern district of Dantewada, a 30-year-old village head, Madkami Massa, was picked up from his village Aug 5 by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and allegedly shot dead in a staged gunfight.

Kanwar refuted the charges and said that a judicial probe into the girl's killing and a magisterial inquiry into village head's killing were on.

He turned down the demand for either a CBI or a judicial probe into the killing of the village head saying, "Massa was killed in an encounter with a CRPF combing squad that comprised 105 men."

The home minister's statement was countered by Kawasi Lakhma, Congress legislator from Konta, where the village head was killed.

Lakhma said: "Massa, the head of Chikpal village, used to wear a lungi like other tribals but the CRPF forcibly made him wear a Maoist uniform to make a cold-blooded murder look like an encounter."

He asked the Chhattisgarh government to order a CBI probe. "Let the people know the truth behind the killing," he said.

The Congress, which has 39 members in the 90-member state assembly, staged a walkout when the home minister said: "A magisterial inquiry is enough."