title: RewriteRule for 301 redirect
body: <p>I went through all the answered threads on rewrite rule problem. Tried the suggestions, But I still don't know what I am doing wrong. </p>
  
  <p>I want to make a 301 redirect of our old URLs to the new ones. Example: </p>
  
  <pre><code>old url : http://www.xyz.com/abc/topics.html
  new url : http://www.xyz.com/index.php#first
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am trying following rule in .htaccess:</p>
  
  <pre><code>RewriteEngine on
  RewriteRule ^\/abc\/(.+)$ http://www.xyz.com/index.php#first [L,R=301]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any advice is highly appreciated</p>