By Jueseppi B.

LAGOS, Nigeria — The leader of an Islamic extremist group in Nigeria says his group has started kidnapping women and children as part of its bloody guerrilla campaign against the country’s government, according to a video released Monday.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau says the kidnappings are retaliation for Nigerian security forces routinely imprisoning the wives and children of his group’s members. The video shows 12 children, a mix of boys and girls, though it does not identify them or say where they came from.

Boko Haram, an Islamic sect whose name roughly translates to “Western education is a sin,” is widely believed to be behind Monday’s attack that left 71 people dead and more than 120 others injured. It was the group’s first major attack on Abuja in about two years.

In Nigeria, there is still no word on the fate of more than 200…