Those responsible for the deaths of six newborns at Ad-din Medical College Hospital cannot be allowed to escape accountability, Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain said today.

"We cannot allow people to carelessly cause the deaths of six babies and then sleep peacefully while pointing fingers at the authorities," he said while speaking at a programme at Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College in Dhaka today.

The minister said he personally visited the room where the six babies died and found it completely enclosed, with no windows and only a single entrance.

He said that besides the newborns, between 16 and 25 mothers and attendants were staying in the room, while the air conditioner had reportedly remained switched off for about two hours.

The health minister said the babies had been crying continuously and the mothers had been calling for nurses, but no one responded.

"There was no doctor on duty. It was a post-operative room for newborns, yet no one came to check on them," he said.

A nurse eventually took one baby out of the room and brought the infant back about 10 minutes later, apparently in a better condition. Even a non-doctor should have realised something was wrong, he added.

"There was no adequate oxygen in that enclosed room. Once one baby improved after being removed, the others should also have been taken out immediately. Instead, six babies died in succession," he said.

Sakhawat also alleged that no one from the hospital's ownership side visited the ward.

"Shouldn't they be punished, or should we simply let it go? We first revoked the hospital's license, and I do not believe that was wrong,” he further said.