Not In Mustafa’s Name: Minority Group Objects To Name Of Man-Eating Tiger; Officials Clarify It’s Based On Convention

A group of people from the minority community on Tuesday (1 January) submitted a memorandum to Lakhimpur Kheri district magistrate (DM) Shailendra Singh, raising objection over naming of a man-eating tiger as ‘Mustafa’, reports Times of India.

The name ‘Mustafa’ in Arabic means the “chosen one”, an epithet of Prophet Muhammad. “Calling a man-eater tiger Mustafa is a grave insult to the Prophet. An FIR should be registered against the forest official who named him so. We have requested the DM to change the name.” President of Kheri Ekta Parishad, Mohammed Ashraf Khan, was quoted in the report as saying.

The tiger, believed to have killed six people, was rescued from Pilibhit Tiger Reserve in Mustafabad in February 2017. It is currently in an isolated enclosure in the Lucknow Zoo.

However, Lucknow Zoo director RK Singh said that the name was given following convention.

“The name Mustafa was given to the big cat at Lucknow zoo because the tiger was rescued in Mustafabad in Pilibhit district. This is the convention we follow in naming tigers. There was no intention to hurt anyone’s sentiments,” Singh said.

As per the report, Kheri DM acknowledged receiving of memorandum from the community and said that it would be forwarded to the relevant department for further action.