KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Indian diplomats prepared to meet with Nepal's King Gyanendra Thursday to ease civil unrest in the Himalayan kingdom as pro-democracy activists prepared for a major rally. The meeting was to take place at the Royal Palace when Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and India's special envoy, Karan Singh, will deliver a letter and personal message to the king from the Indian prime minister. Singh has marital ties to the Nepalese royal family. The diplomatic effort comes in the midst of a government-imposed curfew, which was imposed Thursday from 2 a.m. until 8 p.m. (2015 Wednesday-01415 Thursday GMT). In a rare occurrence, the government refused to issue curfew passes for the media. Hours before the curfew was set to begin, police said they acted on a tip and arrested a Maoist rebel with about 40 kilograms of gelatin explosives in Kathmandu. Organizers of the pro-democracy rally say they expect tens of thousands of demonstrators to take part, despite a crackdown by Nepal's security forces, who have been ordered to shoot curfew violators. CNN's Satinder Bindra said the streets of Kathmandu were largely empty except for military vehicles. Nepal has been gridlocked by two weeks of protests against the rule of King Gyanendra, who took full control of the government last year. On Wednesday, four protesters were killed and 500 were injured -- including the police chief -- in the eastern Nepalese district of Jhapa, police sources said. With the deaths, 10 protesters have been killed in the ongoing demonstrations. India, the world's largest democracy, has close diplomatic and economic ties to neighboring Nepal, and despatched Saran and Singh to Kathmandu on Wednesday in an effort to resolve the Himalayan kingdom's leadership crisis. Saran met Wednesday with Nepal's army chief, Gen. Pyar Jung Thapa, who is considered the real power behind the throne. Many countries, including the United States, have urged the king to loosen his grip on power, blaming the monarch for failing to restore democracy after he dismissed the previous government, censored the media and seized total rule in February 2005. Other nations have urged him to step down. Gyanendra insists his steps were justified, arguing that the government had failed to protect Nepal from Maoist rebels who wanted to install a communist government. In a conciliatory gesture, the king Wednesday ordered the release of Nepal's former deputy prime minister and senior communist leader, Madhav Kumar Nepal, who has been under house arrest for three months. Nepal imposed a curfew on the popular tourist town of Pokhara on Wednesday, after the previous day's clashes between police and protesters. State-run Radio Nepal warned that anyone violating the curfew would be shot. Police arrested 250 college and university professors who defied it. With shops closed and vehicles off the streets, food and fuel are running short. Armored military vehicles brought supplies to Kathmandu for the first time since the general strikes began. Seven major political parties -- supported by Maoists -- called for the protests, and vowed to keep defying curfews and shoot-on-sight orders until the king leaves. The Maoist rebel insurgency that began in 1996 has killed at least 13,000 people.