A Muslim policeman has been shot dead while guarding a Serbian Orthodox church in a Muslim-dominated village near the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, say local religious leaders who have condemned the killing.

‘‘This is a monstrous crime. This is an attack against humanity, against civilisation, against the state, but also against places of worship,’’ Boris Kozemjakin, a local Jewish leader, told reporters as he came to the scene of the crime with Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox Christian religious leaders.

Bosnian police officers investigate at the site of a killing of one of their colleagues in Reljevo. Credit:AFP

Muhidin Pivodic, a Muslim, was shot dead overnight while sitting in a police car in front of the Serbian Orthodox church in the village of Reljevo, near Sarajevo.

The police officer was charged with protecting the church, which in the past had come under automatic weapons fire and been vandalised.