Twenty-five kg of RDX was found buried near Sukrala temple in Kishtwar town of Doda district, a few days ahead of its annual festival, army officials said on Monday.
Troops recovered the explosives along with detonators buried in a field near the temple during a sanitisation operation, they said.
They suspected a plan by militants to use the 25 kg RDX to target the temple during its annual festival that begins midweek.
Security forces were monitoring the area round the clock to ensure that the festival at the shrine complex is incident-free, the officials added.