Ghaziabad, Aug 12 - About a dozen armed men robbed the house of a retired Border Security Force (BSF) officer here of cash and jewellery worth nearly Rs.3 lakh, police said Wednesday. The robbery was followed by angry protests by locals who held a police inspector hostage for an hour.

The incident occurred late Tuesday night in Karhera locality under Sahibabad police station of Ghaziabad, police said.

A dozen men armed with pistols, iron rods and knives barged into the house of Anil Kumar Bansal, a retired officer of the BSF. At the time Bansal, his mother, wife and two children were asleep in the house, police said.

The armed men tied the hands of the family and locked them in a room and then robbed the house of cash, jewellery and other valuables worth Rs.3 lakh, police added.