From correspondents in Jammu and Kashmir, India, 02:01 AM IST

One tourist was killed and six other people were wounded Sunday afternoon in a powerful explosion after militants lobbed a grenade near a bus stand in Jammu and Kashmir's Gulmarg resort, the police said.

Militants tossed a grenade near the bus stand in the mountain resort of Gulmarg, 45 km from here, Sunday. The grenade exploded close to a tourist bus, a police official said.

'Seven people, including two domestic tourists and five locals, were injured in the explosion. All the injured were taken by the police to a Tangmarg hospital, where a critically injured tourist Ashok Kumar from Uttar Pradesh succumbed to his injuries,' a police officer told IANS.

He said the condition of one more injured person was serious.

The blast triggered panic and tension in the tourist resort famous for its breathtaking beauty and skiing slopes.

The mountain resort is the favourite destination of domestic and foreign tourists who throng the Valley.

The inflow of tourists has dropped drastically after the ten-day long protests here against the allotment of land to the Amarnath Shrine board which was cancelled by the state government.

Sunday's blast came a day after nine army men were killed in a powerful road side bomb at Narbal on the Srinagar Uri highway.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)