3 policemen found killed by bullets to the head west of Pakistan’s capital

3 policemen found shot in head in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — Police say three policemen have been fatally shot — each by a single bullet to the head — west of Pakistan’s capital.

Officer Arshad Mahmood says it appears to be a targeted killing but would not say if Taliban militants are suspected.

The dead policemen were discovered early Sunday in their guard room along a railway bridge in Hasan Abdal, a town 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Islamabad in Punjab province.

Mahmood says they apparently were sleeping when killed.

Pakistani Taliban militants frequently target police, though usually in the country’s volatile northwest.

As Islamist militancy has grown in Pakistan, criminality also has risen.