UMERKOT, Nov 3. A case has been registered against robbers who took away replicas of historical coins from the archaeology museum of the Umerkot Fort on Friday.

A team of the archaeology department and fingerprint experts, who arrived in Umerkot on Saturday to investigate the robbery of fake coins, recorded the statements of museum employees and collected fingerprints.

The team included deputy director of the archaeology department Mazhar Mirani and members of the fingerprint bureau from Hyderabad.

Three armed robbers held the museum staff hostage and took away 349 replicas of real coins of the Mughal era.

The electroplated coins were displayed in 1968.

Mr Mirani told Dawn that the robbers were not involved in the theft and robbery of antiques. It seemed that they had little information about the worth of antiques. They therefore did not touch various manuscripts, calligraphy specimens, royal documents, sculptures and jewellery on display and were attracted by the glitter of fake coins.

He conceded that the department did not have police guards to protect the artefacts, adding that it would now would ask the Sindh police for guards.

The Umerkot police registered a case of robbery against three unidentified accused on the complaint of Gul Hassan, a clerk of the museum.

An official of the fingerprint bureau, ASI Vikram, and a constable collected fingerprints from the site of the incident.