JAMMU, Sept 23 — Six civilians were killed and five injured in a bomb explosion that wrecked a shop in Sangaldan village of Udhampur today.

According to the police, when a shopkeeper, Jagmeet Singh, opened his shop at 7 a.m., an IED planted under shop exploded, killing five civilians on the spot. One wounded person succumbed to his injuries later. The condition of two wounded civilians is said to be critical.

The police said that after three hours, another blast took place 200 metres from the site of the first blast. However, nobody was killed in the second explosion.

Militants had planted the IED 200 metres from the site of the first blast to inflict casualties on the security personnel were being rushed to the spot where the first blast took place. However, the additional companies of the police and the paramilitary forces had reached the scene of the incident well ahead of the second blast.

The police said that a famous hot water spring, Tatta Paani, is situated close to the site of the blast. Since the spring attracts large groups of people round the year, the militants had planned the bomb explosions to carry out large-scale killings.

Those killed in the first blast included Jagmeet Singh, the shopkeeper, Shafi Wani, Abdul Rashid, Farooq Ahmed, Mangat Dula and his brother, Manzoor Ahmed.

In other incidents, the security forces killed five militants, including two Pakistani infiltrators, and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition in Poonch sector since last night, official sources said today.

The sources said alert troops of Ace of Spade Division (ASP) challenged a group of armed militants, who had infiltrated into the Indian side along the LoC in the Sabragali area in Mendhar sub-sector last night.

Two militants were killed as the troops opened fire when the infiltrators tried to escape back to Pakistan, the sources said.

In three separate encounters at Kalar Mohra, Bamnar and Majhiari in Poonch district, troops killed three militants late last night, the sources said.