PESHAWAR: Reacting to the ban imposed by the United States, the administration of Madrassa Taleemul Quran Ganj Tuesday night said they feel the sanctions are “unjustified and uncalled for.”

An administrative council member of the madrassa, who wished not to be named, told Dawn.com that Sheikh Aminullah was just a teacher at the madrassa and had left it almost 8 months ago. There was no information about him after he was put on the wanted list in November 2012, he added.

The US Treasury, earlier on Tuesday, had set economic sanctions on the Islamic school and branded it a “terrorist training center” supporting al Qaeda and the Taliban.

It said the Ganj madrassa in Peshawar was being used as a training and recruiting base by the two militant groups, as well as the Lashkar-e-Taiba blamed for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

“Sheikh Aminullah had not been in sight for the last eight months and no one knows where he is but we reiterate that this is an ordinary seminary and such things have no link to it,” said the seminary official.

“You can see here, these are just ordinary students and madrassa only provides religious education and nothing else, so the ban seems to be ridiculous,” he said.

“Any one can check the record of the madrassa, its very much clear that these are ordinary students and had nothing to do with any terrorist activity or terrorist organisation.”

The official, however, said that they would give their official and on record statement after consultation with the administrative council in a next couple of days.