Around 50,000 slogan-shouting Muslims staged a rally in the Indian capital yesterday against the visit of US President George W. Bush, who was due here by evening after a short trip to Afghanistan. The protestors gathered at the Ram Lila grounds near New Delhi's main commercial area for the protest organised by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, a Muslim religious organisation. Police put the number of protestors at around 50,000 but organisers claimed some 300,000 people had turned up. A smaller protest was held at the historic 17th century Jama Masjid mosque in Old Delhi, witnesses said. "We do not want Bush here as he is the world's biggest terrorist. He has no place in the land of (freedom hero Mahatma) Gandhi," said Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind spokesman Abdul Hameed Naumani. The protestors shouted "Bush murdabad" (Bush die) and "Bush vaapas jao" (Bush, go back), amid demands to ban the Danish newspaper which printed controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed last year. Addressing the rally, Communist Party of India general secretary A.B. Bardhan called the US president an "imperialist aggressor" for his invasion of Iraq and for "bullying" Iran over its nuclear programme. Left-wing parties and workers' organisations were preparing for similar protests on Thursday. Eight political parties, most of them communist, have formed a Committee Against Bush Visit, which will hold a "people's march" and put up cartoons and T-shirts poking fun at Bush on Thursday.