Top Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant, Abu Umar, the brain behind last September's Akshardham temple attack and the massacre of 24 Pandits at Nadimarg in March this year, was killed in an encounter in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, a Border Security Force spokesman said.

Two associates of Umar were also killed in the BSF-Rashtriya Rifles joint operation.

Umar was a self-styled divisional commander of LeT.

A BSF jawan lost his life and four were injured in the encounter which lasted several hours.

The exchange of fire took place after the security personnel launched a combing operation in the area on a tip off about
the presence of militants.

With additional inputs from PTI