Hyderabad, Feb. 9 -- Senior Congress leader and former Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Saturday that freedom should be given back to the people of Kashmir.

"I think we are keeping many, many more troops in Kashmir than I would ever accept as necessary. I think it is wrong. We should thin out our troops deployment in Kashmir. More than that, I think we should give back freedom to the people of the Kashmir Valley," Chidambaram who also served as India's finance minister said.

He was replying to a question whether it was true that the country spends one per cent GDP to keep 950,000 troops in Kashmir, he said there were more troops than necessary.

Chidambaram was speaking on the Union Budget at a meeting organised by the party here.

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