MOSCOW, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The headless bodies of a court bailiff and a police officer have been found in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, news agencies reported on Tuesday.

    The bodies were found late Monday in the trunk of a car parked in the town of Chegen, and they had been shot before being beheaded, RIA Novosti quoted a local security official as saying.

    Police are looking into several theories behind the murder, including violence of religious extremists, an official at the regional department of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass.

    In a separate attack in neighboring Ingushetia, a police officer and his daughter were killed in the provincial capital of Nazran on Tuesday morning.

    The victims were driving in a car when unknown assailants opened fire at the vehicle, Ingush Interior Ministry spokesman told Inter fax.

    The North Caucasus republics have seen frequent militant violence in recent months despite the end of a decade-long anti-terrorism operation in Chechnya in April, with attacks on troops, police and officials being reported almost daily.