The revelation comes as police continue to search for accomplices of the gunmen who killed 20 people at the Holey Artisan café.
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Al Jazeera criticises the government for living in denial of the worldwide connections of Bangladeshi militant factions.
Indonesia has condemned the recent terrorist attack on a café in Gulshan, Dhaka, in which 20 people were killed, mostly foreign citizens, and several others were injured.
The involvement of ISIS appeared increasingly more likely during the latest attack, with the organization not only claiming responsibility but later posting the photographs of the men believed to have carried it out.
Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told Reuters that the brutal killings inside a diplomatic sector of the city was the result of local militants rather than the work of the Islamic State, which on Saturday claimed responsibility for the assaults. Two Bangladeshi police officers were also killed early in the siege.
On Friday night, seven so-called Islamic State (IS) militants killed 22 people including two police officers at the Western-styled café in Dhaka.
But, the Islamic State named the five gunmen in photos they released hours after the attack as Abu Umayer, Abu Salma, Abu Rahiq, Abu Muslim and Abu Muharib.
The bodies of two Bangladeshis and one Bangladeshi-born USA citizen were handed over to the relatives for subsequent rituals and burial after the ceremony that was held on the second day of the two-day nationwide mourning declared in the country.
Three of the victims were students at universities in the United States.
The Higher Education Ministry will investigate allegations that a Bangladeshi terror suspect had once studied at a private university in Malaysia.
He would give no other details of their identities, but said authorities were looking into their backgrounds and questioning their family and friends as well.
Thirteen hostages were rescued in total, some of whom were rushed to a military hospital.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused her political opponents of trying to create chaos by backing domestic militants.
“A majority of the boys who attacked the restaurant came from very good educational institutions”. One of the terrorists was an alumnus of the prestigious North South University in Dhaka, which the terror expert said they had been monitoring for some time now as some of the students had set up a Facebook group with posts that were seen as beoing pro-ISIS.
“There may be a link to global terrorist groups, including IS; we are looking into that angle”, he said, adding that the attackers were educated, well off and brainwashed.
On Tuesday, the bodies of nine Italians and seven Japanese killed were flown home.
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Since previous year, however, 18 secular and gay rights activists, foreign NGO workers, and members of religious minorities have been murdered in a series of targeted killings by motorcycle hit squads.
