The home ministry on Sunday issued an order asking police to prepare a list of missing youths across the country as assaulters of the last week's Gulshan attack had gone missing for months and reappeared only to stage the carnage.

Asked for comments about media reports suggesting as high as 150 youths currently remained missing, he called the report speculative.

On the other hand, he said several youths were found to have returned home while some of the missing cases were not found to have no link to terrorism.

He said police would seek help of people in neighbourhoods in gathering information about the background of the lost youths and talk to their guardians as well.

Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid earlier said directives were issued asking schools to report to police if any of their student remained absent for 10 days due to unknown reasons.

But the home minister's comments came a day after he said law enforcement agencies were asked to initially launch an enquiry about the missing initially on the basis of media reports.

Most of the youths who carried out the Gulshan massacre remained missing for six months or more while their families came to know about them only after they were killed in a subsequent army-led security clampdown on July 2 morning.

Asked if the government revised its stance on possible IS link to the two consequent Islamist attacks in the country, he said "our initial investigation suggests both the attacks were carried out by homegrown JMB".

"But it appears that they (terrorists) are trying to establish links with IS through the social media . . . however, none of them came from Syria or any other country to stage the attacks," Khan said.

Law minister Anusul Huq earlier today told BSS that no legal evidence was found so far suggesting IS involvement in the attacks in Bangladesh".

"However, the terrorist may have an access to the IS media outlet to lodge the claims of their acts in the name of the Syria-based terrorist outfit," Huq said.