MOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) - The bodies of a police officer and two of his brothers were found shot dead in a wood near what looked like a militant hideout in the southern Russian republic of Daghestan, local police said on Friday.

"Police found five automatic weapon and pistol shells at the scene," a police officer said. "A dugout to accommodate five people was discovered nearby."

The dugout contained food, camouflage uniforms, a gas stove with canisters, medicines, radical Islamist literature and materials and manuals for making bombs, police said.

The bodies were found late on Thursday in Daghestan's Khasavyurt district, which borders Chechnya.

Russia's Caucasus republics are plagued by violence linked both to separatist fighting in Chechnya and local criminal groups.