Bangladesh’s government will fund treatment for conjoined twins Zaynab and Umme Kulsum from Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain Bakul said. The children were admitted to the hospital’s paediatric department at 8pm on Monday. The minister visited them shortly after their admission.

Bakul told journalists that the family had returned to their village because poverty prevented them from obtaining treatment. He said authorities contacted the parents on the prime minister’s instruction after a report in Amar Desh brought the matter to attention. The family was asked to bring the children to Dhaka after being informed that treatment would be arranged at the hospital.

The minister said available specialist doctors would provide treatment and that a medical board could be formed with doctors brought from abroad if necessary. He said the prime minister would bear all treatment expenses. Hospital authorities have arranged daily meals for the parents and provided them with Tk5,000 for personal expenses. The twins were born at Bangladesh Medical University three months and seven days earlier.