The demand was additionally advanced by Darshan Singh Pheruman, a veteran Akali leader with a long history of participating in Sikh political rights movements, from the Akali movement during which he was jailed for a year in 1921 and the Jaito Morcha of 1923-25 to reinstate Sikh leaders of Punjabi princely states removed by the British in which he was jailed again three years later. He went to the jail three times during the course of the Punjabi Suba movement. Believing that Sant Fateh Singh had failed Punjabis on the issue of transfer of Chandigarh and Punjabi-speaking areas by not fulfilling his promise of self-immolation, Pheruman announced his own fast on 15 August 1969. Declaring the country as free but the "panth" still in bondage without a Sikh homeland, the party's Working Committee resolved to continue to struggle for the objectives of Fateh Singh's fast, with nearly all Punjabi parties participating in a huge procession in Chandigarh to have it included. He was arrested and sent to jail where he continued his fast. He passed away on 27 October 1969, on the 74th day of his hunger strike.