In a major success, a top militant commander was gunned down by the Jammu and Kashmir police in Sopore, 54 km from Srinagar late on Tuesday evening.

Police said Sajad Afghani, the chief commander of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen was killed late on Tuesday evening.

"On specific information that Sajad Afghani was hiding in a residential quarter near the Sopore hospital, a raiding team of the Special Operations Group of the police surrounded the quarter and challenged the hiding militant commander to surrender," a senior police officer said.

"He, however, resorted to firing at the police, resulting in a short encounter at the end of which Afghani was killed," the officer added.

The officer said arms and ammunition were also recovered from him.