Vancouver Sun 

As more than 1,000 mourners prepare to pay their last respects Sunday to five of the six people struck and killed on an unlit Abbotsford road, prayers have already begun.
Families of the victims gathered at Abbotsford's Khalsa Diwan Society Friday afternoon for a reading of the scriptures from the Guru Granth Sahib, or the Sikh Holy Book.
The continuous reading of the 1,430-page scriptures, considered a prayer for the souls of the dead, takes about 48 hours to finish and is timed to coincide with the end of Sunday's funerals. Four people will read from the book, switching readers every two hours.  
The final prayer will be read during a two-hour ceremony at the Khalsa Diwan Society after the funerals.
"It's done for every deceased; they pray for their salvation," Ajit Anand, secretary of the society's temple, said Friday.
About 100 people were at the society Friday night for the start of the Guru Granth Sahib, a holy book of song, poems and scriptures, which is considered by strict Sikhs as a "living guru."
The book is believed to lead humans out of a dark era to a life of peace, tranquility and spiritual enlightenment, according to Sikh sources.

"The community is still in shock, everybody is feeling really bad," said Khalsa Diwan president Gurdarshan Sandhu.
 "There were so many deaths at the same time."
Six people were killed and 17 injured on Aug. 24 when they were struck by a truck as they walked together down a dark Abbotsford road during a pre-wedding celebration.
They were among 30 people participating in a traditional procession toward the home of bride-to-be Harsimran Kaur Mahil. Most of the people were friends of the bride or members of her family.
Funerals are set for four people - Damanpreet Kang, 13, Rubal Kaur Gill, 21, Rupinder Singh Kaler, 26, and Satinder Kaur Mahil, 57 - at Delta's Riverside Funeral Home at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.
Mourners, including politicians such as Abbotsford Mayor George Ferguson and Surrey-Tynehead MLA Dave Hayer, will then pay their respects to Harjinder Kaur Sanghera, 57, at Abbotsford's Woodlawn Funeral Home at 1 p.m.
"This is probably one of the saddest things I've seen. We had so many family members connected to each other throughout the world," Hayer said.
"There's no words that can explain the pain and grief and suffering these families are going through."
The body of a sixth victim - Ripudaman Singh Dhillon, 34, of Texas -  was to be flown back to India for last rites on Friday.
The deaths have pulled together the Indo-Canadian community, with a steady stream of people providing food and comfort to the bereaved, Riverside funeral director Jasbir Bhir said.
More than a thousand people are expected to attend services at the funeral home run by Five Rivers Community Services Society. Five Rivers, which means Punjab, provides services for South Asians.  
"Basically all the funerals are community funerals," Bhir said. "It's not only the relations who will come. The basic thing is to help out the families in distress."
Bhir said the funeral home can accommodate 1,000 people in its two chapels, which are connected by a collapsible wall, although the mourners will have to sit facing each other. Woodlawn can hold about 350 people.
Police will monitor the traffic and crowds, while extra security will also be on hand, Bhir said.
The service will follow Sikh tradition, in which the four bodies will lay in open caskets for a full viewing before prayers are offered up by a Sikh priest. The services are expected to take about two hours.
The bodies will then be cremated, which is believed by Sikhs to free the soul to allow it to become one with God. Hayer said the ashes are often scattered into rivers in India or Canada.
He added the two funerals were timed to allow the mourners to attend bothon Sunday.
Although Sanghera is having a separate funeral as she is not related to the others, she was a close friend of Satinder Kaur Mahil. Their deaths, he said, have linked them forever.
"They grew up together, went to school together and when they immigrated to Canada they were neighbours," he said. "Sadly, they died together. When you look at this case, it's unbelievable."
The temple will offer food and song as part of the prayer ceremony Sunday afternoon, Anand said.
The families of the victims could not be reached Friday. They have asked that the media stay away from the funeral to allow them a "private service," Bhir said.
Yet she added anyone else is welcome to attend. "You are reminded of your own mortality so it's considered good."