The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake seriously damaged the building and rendered it unsafe; the heavy rains of the following years weakened the structure. It was demolished in 1963 and the site converted into a public park. With the Soviet ban on religion, the Baháʼís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned its administration and its properties were nationalized. By 1938, with the NKVD (Soviet secret police) and the policy of religious oppression most Baháʼís were sent to prisons and camps or abroad; Baháʼí communities in 38 cities ceased to exist. In the case of Ashgabat, Baháʼí sources indicate on 5 February the members of the assembly, leaders of the community and some general members of the community to a total of 500 people were arrested, homes were searched and all records and literature were confiscated (claiming they were working for the advantage of foreigners), and sometimes forced to dig their own graves as part of the interrogation. It is believed one woman set fire to herself and died later in a hospital. The women and children were largely exiled to Iran. In 1953 Baháʼís started to move to the Soviet Republics in Asia, after the head of the religion at the time, Shoghi Effendi, initiated a plan called the Ten Year Crusade. The Baháʼís who moved to Turkmenistan found some individual Baháʼís living there though the religion remained unorganized. During the 1978-9 civil war in Afghanistan some Baháʼís fled to Turkmenistan.