New Delhi, Aug. 27: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today asked the party leaders' delegation from Odisha to fight for tribal rights and put pressure on the Naveen Patnaik government that was treating the weaker sections of the society unfairly.

State leaders, including Prasad Harichandan and Narasingha Mishra, told Rahul that the BJD and the BJP were working in tandem to create a fear psychosis among the tribal people and Dalits across the country and the recent Kandhamal incident was not an isolated one.

"Don't spare them," Rahul said and directed the state leaders to scale up the agitation against the Odisha government.

While the state leaders explained to Rahul the situation in the wake of the Kandhamal killings, the report prepared by V. Kishore Chandra Deo and Jairam Ramesh, who were also present at today's meeting, was also discussed. Security forces had killed six tribal people and Dalit labourers at the Gumudumaha forest and several others were injured in indiscriminate firing when they were returning home in an auto-rickshaw after collecting their national rural job scheme wages. As the three-wheeler had got stuck in mud, the passengers were pushing the vehicle when the firing took place. The police claimed that the villagers had been caught in a gunfight between Maoists and the security forces.

Human rights activist Manoj Jena described the incident as a "fake encounter" and demanded the National Human Rights Commission's intervention.

"It is match-fixing between the BJD and the BJP. In the name of fighting Naxalites, the government and security forces are creating fear among the poor people. We told Rahul ji that this was the most serious issue," All-India Congress Committee secretary Subhankar Sarkar told The Telegraph.