CHANDIGARH, India, April 15 (Reuters) - Tibetan officials in exile in India have stepped up security for the Dalai Lama following media reports that he faced threats from Islamist militants, police said on Thursday.

The Tibetan government-in-exile based in the northern Indian hill station of Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama lives, had increased the number of guards at his palace while Indian police had raised alert levels around the town, they said.

"We have stepped up the security of the Dalai Lama purely as a precautionary measure," Panchi Lal Thakur, a top police officer, told Reuters by phone from Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh state, where Dharamsala is located.

He said police were yet to confirm with intelligence agencies whether there was any truth behind the media reports.

Local newspapers said Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba -- which is fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir and has been blamed for several attacks across India -- had planned to target the 71-year-old spiritual leader of the Tibetans.

The reason for the threat was not immediately known. The Dalai Lama's security office declined to comment on the reports.

The Dalai Lama has lived in Dharamsala after fleeing Lhasa in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese communist troops who had marched into Tibet nine years earlier.

AlertNet news is provided by