Avtar Mahil, the father of the bride, and Avtar Singh Kang, who lost his only son, 13-year-old Damanpreet Singh Kang, 13, in the accident confirmed the names of the six killed (which were different in various news reports with even the same newspapers changing the names and spellings the next day and thus adding to the confusion) in the August 24 Abbotsford accident tragedy to The VOICE on Wednesday:

Damanpreet Singh Kang, 13.
Rubal Kaur Gill, 20, and Bhupinder Singh Clair, 25, (sister and brother from Toronto).
Ripudaman Singh Dhillon, 34, (from India).
Satwinder Kaur Mahil, 57, (wife of Balbir Mahil, younger brother of Avtar Mahil.)
Harjinder Kaur Sanghera (who is in her fifties).

Mahil told The VOICE that the funerals for Kang, Gill, Clair and Satwinder Mahil will be held at the Riverside Funeral Home in Delta on Sunday (September 2) from 8:30 to 10 a.m.

Sanghera's funeral service will take place at Abbotsford's Henderson Funeral Home on Clearbrook Road, but the cremation will take place in Mission (the Abbotsford funeral home does not have cremation facilities).

Then at 4 p.m. on Sunday Antim Ardas will be held for all the five victims at Abbotsord's Khalsa Diwan Society Gurdwara.

Mahil said that Dhillon's body will be flown to India as he was just visiting his three sisters in the United States and had accompanied them to the wedding here. He lived in Ajmer (Rajasthan state) where he had a marble business.

Mahil said he was very moved by the hundreds of people that came to their homes to offer condolences. He added that they did not even know some of them.

Meanwhile, Kang told The VOICE that he too was in the "Jaago" procession but escaped injury. He lost his only son, Damanpreet, who was elsewhere in the procession. He said he ran after the driver of the pickup, yelling, "Stop! Stop!" He claimed that the driver had fallen asleep and that he just never saw the procession.

He said that the pickup's lights were on (there were some news reports that the lights were not on).



- RATTAN MALL